How Myanmar's Currency Crisis Is Affecting Families' Ability to Fund Study Abroad
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Aug 07, 2026 • Money & Budgeting, Study in Southeast Asia
The kyat has lost most of its value against the US dollar since the February 2021 coup. Myanmar's black market rate reached 5,000 kyat per dollar by May 2024, far above the central bank's earlier fixed rate of 2,100, making overseas tuition and living costs much harder for families to fund.
💵 Official peg near 2,100 kyat/USD held for a period after the coup, while the black market rate kept rising.
📩 Black market rate: about 3,500 kyat/USD in August 2022, about 5,000 kyat/USD by May 2024.
🏠 Banks require approval for larger foreign currency transfers, which slows and complicates paying tuition abroad.
⏱️ Families increasingly rely on informal transfer networks, relatives abroad, or scholarships instead of self-funded remittances.
The kyat's fall since the 2021 coup
Myanmar's military seized power in February 2021, and the kyat has weakened sharply against the US dollar since. The Central Bank of Myanmar held an official exchange rate close to 2,100 kyat per US dollar for a period after the coup, but that rate diverged further from what people paid on the informal market each year.
The gap between the official and informal rate widened through 2022 and 2023. By August 2022, the informal market rate had reached around 3,500 kyat per US dollar, according to reporting tracked on Myanmar kyat exchange rate records .
By May 2024, that rate had climbed further to around 5,000 kyat per US dollar, with the central bank reportedly stepping back from defending its earlier fixed rate.
A family converting savings into US dollars for tuition abroad gets far fewer dollars for the same amount of kyat than they would have gotten before the coup. This currency move alone has made overseas study meaningfully more expensive for Myanmar households, on top of tuition inflation at destination universities.
Capital controls make sending money out harder, not only more expensive
Since the coup, Myanmar's banking system has operated under tighter foreign exchange oversight. Banks and money changers face approval requirements before processing larger foreign currency transactions, and the central bank has restricted how much foreign currency banks release for overseas transfers at a time.
For a family paying a semester's tuition abroad, this means the transfer itself is not guaranteed to go through smoothly at the official rate, even if the family has the kyat equivalent ready. Delays and partial approvals push some families toward converting cash informally at the market rate before sending funds through channels outside the regulated banking system.
How families are working around the controls
Myanmar students and families have shifted toward a few practical workarounds. Some rely on relatives or contacts already living in the destination country, who receive kyat or a local equivalent from the family in Myanmar and pay the tuition or rent directly in the destination currency, avoiding an international transfer altogether.
Others lean more heavily on scholarships and tuition waivers to reduce how much needs to move across the border at all. Students who once planned to self-fund a full degree are applying to more fully funded or partially funded programs, or choosing destinations with lower total costs, to reduce dependence on kyat-to-dollar transfers.
A smaller group delays enrollment or switches from a first-choice destination to a country with lower tuition and living costs, timing the move around family income and periods when the informal exchange rate is more favorable.
What this means for planning ahead
Families funding study abroad from Myanmar should build a wider buffer into their budget than families in countries with stable currencies, since both the exchange rate and the ability to move money out shift within a single academic year. Getting quotes from a bank and comparing them against actual market conditions before committing to a payment date reduces the risk of a shortfall at the deadline.
Where possible, applying for scholarships, tuition waivers, or destinations with lower total costs reduces how much depends on a volatile exchange rate and a restricted transfer system. Students already abroad should keep a record of every transfer received, since this history supports visa and financial-proof requirements at destination universities and immigration authorities.