In the long-term, the Sri Lanka Remittances is projected to trend around 750.00 USD Million in 2020, according to econometric models.
Around 1.5 million Sri Lankans work abroad, mainly in the Middle East and also in other countries such as South Korea and Italy.
They send or remit around US$ 7.2 billion to their families back home, a sum that beats the forex earnings from apparels and tourism. This does not include monies remitted by Sri Lankans who are permanently domiciled abroad, which is also substantial.
Half of the remittance flows go to rural areas in each country, where poverty and hunger are concentrated, and where remittances count the most.
Remittances help meet day-to-day needs and improve health, education and housing, raising the standard of living in what are mostly rural and underdeveloped communities.
The extra income can help families to save towards long-term goals and boosts domestic consumption — a fundamental for economic growth
Remittances have become a crucial component of the economy for countries such as Sri Lanka, India and the Philippines.
National house hold data shows that on average, a remittance-receiving household in Sri Lanka collects Rs 259,456 per annum.
At the same time, 7.07% of households in Sri Lanka have a migrant abroad, and larger share of households receive remittances.
To be specific, there are 8.76% remittance-receiving households and the gap between migrant and remittance receiving households is 1.69 percentage points.
This difference in the share of migrant households and remittance-receiving households indicate that either migrants are remitting to more than one household in Sri Lanka, or in addition to those considered migrants originating from Sri Lanka, there are others remitting, or a combination of both these scenarios taking place, official sources said.
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