Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Bangladeshis working abroad sent home a record US$7.329 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal, marking a 19.22 per cent growth over the same period of the last fiscal.
“The flow of remittances is still at a satisfactory level,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE, adding that the total amount of remittances dropped slightly in the month of February over that of the previous month due mainly to fewer working days.
The remittances from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad were estimated at $844.07 million in February last, a fall by $108.32 million from the previous month. In January 2010, the remittances were worth $952.39 million, according to the central bank statistics released on Wednesday.
The country received $7.329 billion during the July-February period of fiscal 2009-10 (FY10) against $6.148 billion of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, the BB data showed.
The latest figure shows that despite the slowdown of overseas jobs, inflow of remittances has maintained a robust trend – a continuation of last fiscal year when remittances grew 22.41 per cent, the BB official said.
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.
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.
BBN/SS/SI/AD-04March10-1:08 am (BST)
