President remiss on record of recent remittances

Fact Check

Mentioning the remittance amount of USD 1,121 million, President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka claimed that these remittances recorded over the past two months were the highest in recent times.

FactCheck.lk consulted the Central Bank of Sri Lanka’s (CBSL) data on remittances to verify this claim.

FactCheck.lk understands the president to refer to the total remittances received in January and February 2025, since the amount he cited matches CBSL data for those two months.

To check if the January-February 2025 remittances were the highest in the recent past, FactCheck.lk compared the total remittances from January–February 2025 with all possible consecutive two-month periods since the beginning of 2024 (e.g., January–February, February–March, March–April, etc.).

Exhibit 1 shows four separate two-month periods in 2024, including the monthws immediately preceding January–February 2025, where the total remittances were greater than USD 1,121 million.

On remittances in a single month, the remittance in January 2025 was USD 573 million (higher than in February). Yet, the remittances in August, October and December of 2024 were higher than those in January 2025 (see Exhibit 1).

In sum, President Dissanayaka’s claim that the January-February remittances figure represents the highest inflow in the recent past is incorrect, either in a two-month period or a single month.

Therefore, we classify the president’s claim as FALSE.

*FactCheck.lk’s verdict is based on the most recent information that is publicly accessible. As with every fact check, if new information becomes available, FactCheck.lk will revisit the assessment.

Exhibit 1: Remittances in 2024 compared to Remittances in January and February 2025