Sri Lanka’s workers’ remittances surged in May to $ 641.7 million, marking the third consecutive month of record inflows for 2025.
May inflow reflects a 18% year-on-year (YoY) growth, although it registered a mere 1% dip compared to April 2025, according to data by the Central Bank.
The April 2025 figure is also the fourth-highest monthly remittance inflow in history, behind $ 812.7 million recorded in December 2020, $ 729.35 million in January 2018 and $ 693.3 million in March 2025.
The improved inflows during May also boosted the cumulative remittances for the first five months of 2025, which reached over $ 3.1 billion — an 18.2% YoY increase and the highest cumulative figure in the period since 2021.
The cumulative figure also represents a 5% increase compared to the $ 2.96 billion registered in the same period of 2016 — the year that holds the record for the highest annual workers’ remittances inflow at $ 7.24 billion.
In 2024, workers’ remittances hit a four-year high of $ 6.57 billion, up by 10.1% from $ 5.69 billion in 2023. This growth was followed by a record wave of people seeking foreign employment after an unprecedented economic crisis. The sharpest post-crisis rebound was in 2023, when workers’ remittances grew by 57% to $ 6 billion, recovering from a 12-year low of $ 3.78 billion in 2022.
Historically, the highest-ever annual workers’ remittances were recorded in 2016, whilst between 2014 and 2018, the annual inflows averaged around $ 7 billion, or roughly around $ 600 million per month.
