COLOMBO (News 1st) – Workers’ remittances increased to US dollars 325 million during August 2022, in comparison to US dollars 279 million in the previous month, recording the highest monthly remittances thus far during 2022. 

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka said that total departures for foreign employment were recorded at 29,072 during August 2022. 

Total departures of foreign employment comprised unskilled (9,685), skilled (8,590), and domestic aid (7,176) categories. 

Total departures for foreign employment during January – August 2022 were recorded at 192,594, compared to 45,899 in the corresponding period of the previous year, and a total of 117,952 in 2021.

Tourist arrivals:

Tourist arrivals moderated in August 2022 to 37,760, from 47,293 arrivals recorded in July 2022. 

The United Kingdom, India, Germany, and France remained the main source countries for tourist arrivals in August 2022. Earnings from tourism in August 2022 are estimated at US dollars 68 million, compared to US dollars 85 million in the previous month, and US dollars 13 million in the corresponding month in the previous year.

Reserves: 

Sri Lanka's gross official reserves stood at US dollars 1.7 billion as of the end of August 2022, said the Central Bank of Sri Lanka on Friday (7), adding that this included the swap facility from the People’s Bank of China, equivalent to around US dollars 1.4 billion, which is subject to conditionalities on usability. 

The Central Bank said that it continued to supply forex liquidity to finance essential
imports by utilizing inflows to gross official reserves. 

Consequently, the level of liquid reserves continues to remain significantly low by the end of August 2022. 

Total foreign assets, which consist of gross official reserves and gross foreign assets of the banking sector, amounted to US dollars 5.7 billion at the end of August 2022.

Financial Flows:

At the same time, foreign investments in the government securities market recorded a marginal net outflow in August 2022, while cumulative net inflow amounted to US dollars 6 million to the government securities market during January-August 2022.

Meanwhile, foreign inflows to the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), including
primary and secondary market transactions, recorded a marginal net inflow in August 2022. On a cumulative basis, the CSE, including primary and secondary market transactions, recorded a net inflow of foreign investments amounting to US dollars 97 million during the eight months ending August 2022.

Trade Balance: 

The deficit in the merchandise trade account narrowed to US dollars 261 million in August 2022, compared to the deficit of US dollars 586 million recorded in August 2021, though it widened compared to July 2022. Meanwhile, the cumulative deficit in the trading account during January-August 2022 also narrowed to US dollars 3,899 million from US dollars 5,507 million recorded over the same period in 2021.

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