Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladeshis working abroad sent home a record over US$ 11.50 billion in the just concluded fiscal year despite the ongoing crisis in the Middle Eastern (ME) countries, officials said.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) officials, however, said although the country's inward remittances increased, its growth continued to show a downward trend in the last couple of years because of lower volume of manpower export.
Manpower export decreased by over 17 per cent to 383,150 in 2010 from 465,351 in the previous calendar year, according to official figures.
Remittances sent by Bangladeshis working abroad reached $11.649 billion, a record in the country's history, in 2010-11 (FY11), marking a 6.03 per cent growth over the previous fiscal.
The flow of inward remittance in FY11 was a continuation of the trend in the last fiscal year, when the country received a record $10.987 billion. The growth in 2009-10 was 13.40 per cent compared to the previous fiscal. It was 22.42 per cent in fiscal 2008-09.
"The inflow of remittances is still at a satisfactory level," a BB senior official said, adding that the central bank is working continuously to increase the flow of inward remittances.
"We're very much cautious about the Middle East situation," another BB official said, adding that the central bank is observing the latest development in the Middle Eastern countries closely.
The remittances from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad were estimated at $1.038 billion in June, up by $39.71 million compared to that of the previous month. In May 2011, the remittance figure was $998.42 million, according to the central bank statistics released on Monday.
The central bank of Bangladesh earlier took a series of measures to encourage expatriate Bangladeshis to send their hard earned money through formal banking channel instead of the illegal 'hundi' system to boost the country's foreign exchange reserves.
The country's foreign exchange reserve stood at $10.90 billion on Monday, despite a slow growth of remittances from Bangladeshis working abroad, the central bank officials added.
Currently, some private commercial banks along with the state-owned commercial banks are increasingly trying hard to channel the remittances from the Middle East, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, Italy and the United States to Bangladesh.
"We're serious about increasing the inflow of remittances through official channel to meet our internal foreign exchange demand," a senior official of a leading private commercial bank told BBN.
He also said some commercial banks are trying to set up their own exchange houses or making arrangements with overseas companies located in different parts of the world.
BBN/SSR/AD-06July11-12:11 pm (BST)