Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The flow of inward remittances dropped by 12.24 per cent in January last despite higher growth of manpower export, officials said.
Bangladeshi nationals working abroad sent US$1.15 billion in January 2016. The amount was lower by $160.65 million than the remittance earning in the previous month. In December 2015, the remittance was $1.31 billion. It was $1.24 billion in January 15, according to the central bank latest statistics, released on Tuesday.
Some 63,998 job-seekers went abroad in the month of January 2016, nearly 126 per cent higher than that of the first month of the last calendar year, according to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) statistics.
A total of 28,333 Bangladeshi workers went abroad with jobs in January 2015, as per the BMET data.
“Declining trend of petroleum product prices in the global market and depreciation of the Great Britain Pound (GBP) and the Euro against the US currency pushed down slightly the flow of inward remittances during the period under review,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) explained.
Bangladesh received $8.64 billion during the July-January period of the ongoing fiscal year (FY) 2015-16, recording a negative growth of 1.04 per cent over the same period of the previous fiscal, the BB data showed.
He also said the BB along with the government is now working to accelerate the flow of inward remittances from different parts of the world in 2016.
Currently, 34 exchange houses are operating across the globe, setting up 1117 drawing arrangements, to expedite the remittance inflow, the central banker added.
The central bank of Bangladesh earlier had taken a series of measures to encourage expatriate Bangladeshis to send their hard-earned money through formal banking channel instead of illegal ‘hundi’ system. The motivation drive aimed at boosting the country’s foreign-exchange reserves.
BBN/SSR/AD