Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The flow of inward remittances decreased slightly in the first month of the current calendar year over that of the previous month which reflects declining growth of manpower export, officials said.
Bangladeshi nationals working abroad sent US$960.093 million in January this year, a fall of $8.997 million from the previous month. In December 2010, the remittance was $969.09 million, according to the central bank statistics released on Thursday.
At least 390,702 Bangladeshis found jobs in different countries in 2010, down from 476, 278 in the previous year, the state-run Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) data showed,
“We’re monitoring the overall inflow of remittance closely,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said, adding that the overall remittance growth is dependent on manpower export.
The country received $6.510 billion during the July-January period of fiscal 2010-11, registering a 0.386 per cent growth over the same period of the previous fiscal, the BB’s data showed.
The sluggish growth comes despite the central bank 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.
Currently, some private commercial banks along with the state-owned commercial banks are desperately trying to increase the flow of inward remittances from the Middle East, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Italy and the United States.
“We’re still serious about increasing the inflow of remittances through official channels to meet our internal foreign exchange demand,” a senior official of a commercial bank said.
He also said some banks are trying to set up their own exchange houses or drawing arrangements with overseas companies in the different parts of the world.
The country’s foreign exchange reserve stood at $10.480 billion on Thursday despite declining trend of inward remittances.
BBN/SI/AD-04Feb11-2:02 am (BST)
