Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The central bank of Bangladesh sees that the country's overall inward remittance will cross US$12.50 billion by the end of the current fiscal year (FY) as different moves have already been taken to increase its flow.
"We expect that the inflow of remittance may cross $12.50 billion mark by the end of FY’12," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said, adding that the steady growth of inward remittance may continue in the coming months following stable exchange rate of the local currency against the US dollar.
He also said the existing stable trend of the local currency against the greenback is likely to continue until June 2012.
The BB has estimated the figure on the basis of last 10 months flow of remittances registering a 10.43 per cent increase over the corresponding period of last year.
The inflow of remittance grew by 16.38 per cent to $6.85 billion from eight Middle East countries including Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait during the July-April period of the FY’12 while the growth rate was only 1.04 per cent to $3.77 billion from rest of the world, generally known as non-Middle East countries, the BB data showed.
The commission for sending remittance has been slashed significantly following withdrawal of pay cash exclusivity clause from the contract between the exchange houses and the banks concerned, another BB official said.
He also said the overseas Bangladeshi workforce has encouraged remitting their hard earned money through the banking channel due mainly to the lower commission.
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.
BBN/SSR/AD-18May12-11:10 am (BST)
