Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The flow of inward remittances fell by 11.93 percent in November last over the previous month following the celebration of Eid-ul-Azha festival, officials said on Monday.
“Most of the remittances were sent in the month of October by the expatriates to their families to facilitate celebration of the Eid festival. So, the inflow of remittances fell slightly in November,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank, said, adding that the inflow of remittances would pick up this month.
Bangladeshi nationals working abroad sent US$ 915.45 million in November 2011. The amount was lower by $124.03 million than the remittance earning in the previous month. In October, the remittance stood at $1039.48 million, according to the central bank statistics.
The country received $4.93 billion as remittances during July-November period of the current fiscal year, registering a 7.56 per cent growth over the corresponding period in the previous fiscal, the BB data showed.
The BB 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.
Most of private commercial banks along with the state-owned ones are trying desperately to increase the flow of inward remittances from the Middle East, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, Italy and the United States.
“We’re trying to increase the inflow of remittances continuously from different parts of the world through establishing new contacts with overseas companies,” a senior official of a leading private commercial bank said.
He also said most of the banks were still serious about increasing the inflow of remittances through official channels to meet their internal foreign exchange demand.
BBN/SSR/AD-05Dec11-9:05 pm (BST)
