Year 2023 workers’ remittances reach US$ 6 bn 

• Forex inflow from migrant workers expands by  staggering 57% YoY
• Indicates steady improvement in migrant workers using official banking channels to send money home
• With December receipts, remittances crossed US$ 500 mn mark for the third consecutive month

Workers’ remittances reached US$ 6 billion in 2023, indicating an improvement and a steady inflow of foreign exchange from migrant workers via official banking channels, provisional data from the Central Bank showed.
With positive month-on-month growth seen from May, cumulative remittances for the whole of 2023 expanded by a staggering 57 percent when compared with the US$ 3.8 billion recorded in 2022.
December saw worker remittances total US$ 570 million, a 20 percent increase Year-on-Year (YoY), Central Bank data showed. In December 2022, foreign exchange inflows from migrant workers totalled US$ 476 million.

December also becomes the third consecutive month for remittances to cross the US$ 500 million mark for 2023.
Analysis shows that December traditionally records the highest volume and value of remittances for a calendar year.
Given the ongoing positive trend, 2024 is well on its way to record remittances above the pre-crisis level, primarily due to the island nation having witnessed a large proportion of its workforce exiting the country seeking greener pastures.
Workers’ remittances amounted to about US$ 7 billion annually, until 2021, when forex inflow from migrant workers plunged to 5.5 billion, and then further dipped by 30 percent the following year.