Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The flow of inward remittance recorded a fall after 13 years in the just concluded fiscal year (FY) 2013-14 due mainly to political turmoil and static trend of manpower exporter, officials said.
 
The inflow of remittance declined by 1.61 per cent to US$14.23 billion in the FY 14 from $14.46 billion a year ago, according to the central bank statistics, released on Thursday.
 
Earlier in FY 01, the flow of inward remittances came down to $1.88 billion from $1.95 billion in the previous fiscal.

Talking to BBN, a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank, said the flow of inward remittance hampered seriously in the first half of the FY 14 because of confrontational political situation in the first six months of the last fiscal.

The remittances from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad were estimated at $1.29 billion in June 2014, up by $70.54 million from the level of the previous month. In May last the remittances stood at $1.21 billion, the BB data showed.

The BB official also said the inflow of remittance maintained a stable trend following improvement in the country’s overall political situation after holding the parliament election on January 5 last.

 “We’re now working to expedite the flow of inward remittances through strengthening delivery channel,” another BB official said.

The central bank has already met with senior official of 34 commercial banks seeking their suggestions in this connection, according to the central banker.

Currently, 30 exchange houses operating across the globe have set up 992 drawing outlets abroad to expedite the remittance inflow, he added.

The central bank earlier took a series of measures to encourage the expatriate Bangladeshis to send their hard-earned money through the formal banking channel, instead of the illegal "hundi" system to help boost the country's foreign exchange reserve.

On the other hand, manpower export witnessed a static trend in the last one-and-half-year as unstable situation is prevailing in different Middle-East counties, market operators said.

“We’re facing difficult situation on manpower export following suspension of the same by various Middle East countries including Iraq, Libya and Kuwait,” Ali Haider Chowdhury, secretary general of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agency (BAIRA), said.  “The manpower demand from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has also squeezed recently.”

More than 170,000 people went abroad with jobs until May 2014 against more than 0.40 million in the whole year of 2013. It was over 0.60 million in 2012, the official figures showed.

Four state-run commercial banks and dozens of private commercial banks have stepped up efforts to increase remittance flow from the Middle East, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, Italy and the United States, a senior official of a leading private commercial bank said.

 “Both marketing and delivery channels will be strengthened to facilitate the flow of inward remittances,” the private banker noted.
 

Update:BBN/SSR/AD-03July14-11:40 pm (BST)
 
BBN/SSR/AD-03July14-6:16 pm (BST)