Sri Lanka remittances grew 1.73% in September

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s officially calculated worker remittances grew 1.73 percent from a year earlier to 359.3 million US dollars in September 2022, official data showed.

Official remittances were also up from 325.4 million US dollars in August.

Sri Lanka received around 446 million US dollars in remittances in August 2021, when the central bank tightened rules on how much banks could pay for remittances.

Overseas workers send money through unofficial channels when central banks in the region print money creating pressure on outflows and then imposes exchange controls, triggering parallel exchange rates.

Over decades, legislators, misled by money printing economists, have enacted laws to curb the economic freedoms of the people instead of curbing open market operations of soft-pegged central banks and limiting their ability to mis-target interest rates.

Ironically the legislators themselves pay the price with the electorate kicking them out when inflation go up and currencies fall.