Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The flow of inward remittance crossed US$15 billion-mark in the just-concluded calendar year despite the local currency appreciation against the US dollar.
Bangladeshi overseas workers remitted $15.31 billion in 2015, marking a 2.47 per cent growth over that of the previous calendar year, according to the central bank statistics, released on Sunday.
“We’re now working to expedite the flow of inward remittances from different parts of the world in 2016,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told BBN in Dhaka.
The remittances from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad were estimated at $1.31 billion in December last, up by $165.31 million than that of the previous month. In November 2015, the remittance was $1.14 billion, the BB data showed.
Currently, 34 exchange houses are operating across the globe and have set up 1123 drawing arrangements abroad to expedite the remittance inflow, according to the central banker.
The central bank 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.
“We expect that the inflow of remittances will rise this year as a significant rise in the out-bound jobs of Bangladesh nationals,” the BB official noted.
Some 538,667 Bangladeshi workers went abroad with jobs as of December 23, 2015, reflecting a 30 per cent growth, according to the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) report.
The number was 35 per cent higher than that of 2013, it added.
The amount of inward remittance in terms of US dollar showed a downward trend in 2015 mainly due to appreciation of Bangladesh Taka against the US currency. For this reason, workers also got discouraged in sending their hard-earned money through legal channel, the RMMRU explained.
BBN/SSR/AD