Remittances reached a 10-year low in 2021 with remittances falling by USD 1.61 billion from 2020 to 2021.
The declining trend in remittances continues in 2022. The figures for March 2022 represents a slight improvement from the first two months of 2022. However in comparison to the remittances in the same period of 2021 and 2020 there is a decline.
Sri Lanka’s decline in its remittances appears to be an outlier in the South Asian region. Based on the World Banks’ projections remittances in the South Asian region is projected to have grown by 8% in 20211. Based on data availability the following countries in the region were selected for a comparison as is evident from the pool of countries selected Sri Lanka is the only country that witnessed a decline in its remittances.
Sources:
India |
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Philippines |
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Pakistan |
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Bangladesh |
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Sri Lanka |
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Maldives |
1. World Bank Press Release November’21, Available at < https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2021/11/17/remittance-flows-register-robust-7-3-percent-growth-in-2021 >