ECONOMYNEXT – Worker remittances sent by Sri Lankan expatriates jumped 68.8 percent in January, as many expatriates channelled their foreign earnings through formal banking channels after a record high number of the people migrated in 2022.
The remittances, the top foreign exchange earner, recorded $437.5 million in the first month of 2023 compared to $259.2 million in January last year, the central bank data showed.
The remittances fell sharply from December 2021 as most workers sought to send money via illegal hawala and undiyal methods in the face of the central bank kept the rupee artificially up.
Even after the currency was allowed to depreciate sharply from 200 rupees per dollar to 360, the worker remittances were down.
The inflows fell 31 percent last year to $3.8 billion from the previous year’s $5.5 billion, the latest central bank data showed.
Though a record 311,269 people left the country as migrant workers last year in the face of an unprecedented economic crisis, the worker remittances have yet to rise proportion to the outward labour movement.
The island nation’s rupee fell from 200 rupees per dollar to 360 rupees –within three months in the first half of 2022 after the central bank printed billions of rupees to finance the government spending in the face of higher state expenditure and lower government revenue.
- https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-w...january-after-record-labour-migration-112071/
