Sri Lanka’s foreign worker remittances reached $814.8 million in March 2026, a 17.5 percent increase from $693.3 million in March 2025, according to Central Bank data released on Friday.
Cumulative remittances for the first quarter of 2026 totalled $2.29 billion, up 26.5 percent from $1.81 billion in the same period last year. The growth comes despite the Middle East conflict that has disrupted global trade and energy flows since February, highlighting the resilience of inward remittance channels.
The March figure represents one of the strongest single-month performances since the 2022 economic crisis, when remittances through formal channels had collapsed amid a loss of confidence in the banking system and a severely overvalued official exchange rate.
The remittance recovery is a critical pillar of Sri Lanka’s external account stabilisation. Worker transfers remain the country’s largest single source of foreign exchange, outpacing both tourism earnings and export receipts. The sustained growth has helped cushion the balance of payments impact from rising oil import costs driven by the Strait of Hormuz disruption.
However, the Middle East military escalation poses a medium-term risk to remittance flows. A significant share of Sri Lanka’s migrant workforce is employed in Gulf states, where the conflict has created economic uncertainty. The US-Iran ceasefire talks in Islamabad and the potential extension of the Russian oil waiver may ease some of that pressure if sustained.
Central Bank reserves fell 3.5 percent in March to approximately $7 billion, making the remittance inflows all the more significant for external stability.
