March worker remittance income soars over 24%

• March worker remittances income up 24.4% to US$ 612mn
• Eleventh consecutive month to record an increase 
• 1Q worker remittance income closes to US$ 2bn mark
• Sri Lanka expects US$ 8bn from worker remittances this year

Remittance incomes from Sri Lankans working abroad continued its climb for the eleventh consecutive month as March earnings accelerated over 24 percent over the same month in 2020, marking the recent highest jump since the current run began in May last year. 

Sri Lankan migrants sent back US$ 612 million during March, logging a 24.4 percent growth or US$ 120 million increase from the same month in 2020, bringing total earnings from the worker remittances near the US$ 2.0 billion mark within the first quarter of 2021.  

March typically records the highest monthly remittance incomes compared to the rest of the months as people abroad sent back more moneys to their families, close relatives and friends just ahead of the New Year, which is the largest cultural festival of the Sri Lankans where lot of spending happens. 

Record savings last year, higher private borrowings and rising optimism amid easing pandemic ignited a spell of consumer spending in the run up to the New Year this year. 

The record remittance income only further galvanised this spell of consumer exuberance, which became short lived as the country’s medical sector warned people against venturing out soon after the New Year as they found rising virus infections. 

With March’s record figures, the country has recorded a cumulative US$ 1,867.1 million in remittances, up 16.7 percent or from the US$ 1,600.3 million in the same three months last year.

With earnings from the tourism trade appear stretched than anticipated earlier, the worker remittances remain the only bright spot among major current account flows in the external sector performance of the country, after merchandise exports which are also making progress as the West in particular is in near normalcy with the faster roll out of vaccines and signs of faster economic recovery. 

As authorities grew more optimistic over the pace of the earnings reparations during the last 10 months, the Central Bank upgraded the remittance income target for 2021 at US$ 8.0 billion, the highest ever to have been recorded should the current pace persists.