Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Remittance from expatriate Bangladeshis exceeded $11 billion in the first nine months of the current fiscal, marking a rise of 16.62 per cent over the corresponding period of last fiscal.
Bangladesh received $11.116 billion in remittance during the July-March period of the fiscal year (FY) 2012-13 compared with $9.532 billion received in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, according to the central bank statistics.
“The flow of inward remittances is at a satisfactory level despite of political turmoil,” a central banker said without elaborating.
The remittances from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad were estimated at $1.224 billion in March last, up by $60.68 million from the level of the previous month. In February 2013 the remittances stood at $1.163 billion.
The latest figure shows that despite decline in overseas jobs, the remittance inflow has maintained a robust growth in continuation of last fiscal’s trend, when remittances grew by 10.24 per cent, according to the BB officials.
The country’s overseas employment continued to show a declining trend over the last two months of this calendar year as the key destination like the UAE closed its door for Bangladeshi manpower from last year.
Only 70,526 Bangladeshis got foreign jobs during the January -February period of this year which is down from 128,179 in the same period of last year, according to the official figures.
A total of 607,798 workers went to various job destinations in 2012 which was up from 568,062 in 2011.
The central banker also said the Bangladesh Bank (BB) is working continuously by providing policy supports to the banks also raising awareness among non-resident Bangladeshis about using the banking channel, instead of illegal ‘hundi’, for remitting their money home.
Besides, the central bank of Bangladesh earlier took a series of measures to encourage expatriate Bangladeshis to send their hard-earned money through the formal banking channel, instead of using illegal “hundi” system, to boost the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
Four state-run commercial banks and dozens of private commercial banks have stepped up efforts to increase the remittance flow from the Middle East, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Italy and the United States.
“We’re establishing new contacts with overseas exchange houses so that our overseas workers can find it easy to send money back home,” a senior official of a leading private commercial bank said.
He also said that some banks were trying to set up their own exchange houses in different parts of the world.
BBN/SSR/AD-03Apr13-9:15 pm (BST)
