March current account surplus hits US$ 693mn

Sri Lanka’s highest since January 2023: CBSL

• March surplus marks third consecutive month of positive balances
• Workers’ remittances surged to a record US$ 693 million, setting a new high for the month of March 
• Merchandise trade deficit widened in March 2025 to US$ 396 million

Sri Lanka’s external sector demonstrated strong performance in March 2025, with the highest monthly current account surplus since the compilation of these statistics began in January 2023, data released by the Central Bank showed.

The current account surplus for March 2025 reached US$ 459 million, which marked the third consecutive month of positive balances, driven by strong inflows of workers’ remittances.

Workers’ remittances surged to a record US$ 693 million, setting a new high for the month of March. 

However, the merchandise trade deficit widened in March 2025 to US$ 396 million compared to the same period last year. Despite this, the deficit showed slight improvement from the US$ 411.3 million in February 2025.  The terms of trade experienced a marginal improvement, as import prices declined at a faster rate than export prices. This led to higher export earnings alongside an increase in import expenditure on a year-on-year basis, with both volume indices showing positive growth.

Tourism continued to contribute positively to the external sector in March 2025, with earnings reaching US$ 354 million, up from US$ 338 million in the same month last year. 

Foreign investments in Sri Lanka’s financial markets showed mixed results. The government securities market attracted a net inflow of US$ 49 million, while foreign investments in the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) recorded a slight net outflow of US$ 6 million.

Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves also saw a significant boost, with gross official reserves rising to US$ 6.5 billion by the end of March 2025. This increase was primarily driven by the receipt of the fourth tranche under the International Monetary Fund’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement, alongside net purchases totalling US$ 402 million by the Central Bank from the domestic foreign exchange market.

On the currency front, the Sri Lankan rupee depreciated by 2.3 percent against the US dollar year-to-date as of April 2025.