By Nethmi Rajawasam
COLOMBO – Sri Lankans migrating for foreign employment dropped 4.2% to 297,664 in 2023 from 310,955 in 2022, data from the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB) data show.
Remittances for 2024 end are targeted to increase by 17%, from the recorded 5969 million dollars in 2023 to 7000 million dollars, according to the Bureau’s Publicity Manager Manjula Kularatne.
Sri Lanka’s workers leaving for work abroad dropped to around 203,087 by 2019, with economic growth low or though still positive. However, in 2022 official worker migration rebounded above 300,000 with the worst currency crisis in the history of the island’s soft-pegged central bank.
Sri Lanka last saw 300,703 workers migrating in 2014.
Sri Lanka has a network of employment agencies which have been built up over decades of monetary instability and currency depreciation that had destroyed real wages on the island.
After the 2022 currency crisis and a sharp increase in personal income tax to maintain the country’s bloated state sector, under revenue-based fiscal consolidation, professionals also started to migrate.
Sri Lanka cut taxes in December 2019 to target potential output after two currency crises from money printed (inflationary rate cuts) to target potential output reduced growth.
-economynext.com
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