Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The flow of inward remittances fell by 22.21 per cent in August, the month that followed the Eid-ul-Fitr festival, officials said.
Bangladeshi nationals working abroad sent home US$ 1.16 billion in August last. The amount was lower by $ 331.30 million than the remittance earnings in the previous month. In July last, the remittance was $1.49 billion, according to the central bank statistics.
“The inflow of remittance decreased slightly in the month of August last after the Eid-ul-Fitr, the biggest religious festival of the Muslims,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told BBN in Dhaka.
He also said the flow of inward remittances was expected to pick up in the current month ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha festival.
Bangladesh received a total of $ 2.65 billion during the July-August period of the fiscal year (FY) 2014-15 against $2.24 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, the BB data showed.
The BB 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.
The country’s foreign exchange reserve rose to $ 22.16 billion on Wednesday from $ 22.12 billion of the previous working day, according to the BB officials.
Four state-run commercial banks and over a dozen private commercial banks have stepped up their efforts to increase remittance flow from the Middle East, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, Italy and the United States.
“Some banks are now trying to set up their own exchange houses or having drawing arrangements with overseas companies across the world to expedite the flow of inward remittance,” a senior official of a leading private commercial bank said.
BBN/SSR/AD-04Sept14-1:06 pm (BST)
