Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The inflow of overall remittance in Bangladesh dropped by 17 per cent in the first eight months of this fiscal year (FY) compared to the same period of the last fiscal.
The remittance receipts came down to $8.11 billion during the July-February of the FY 2016-17 from $9.77 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal, according to the central bank latest statistics.
It was estimated at $935.20 million in February 2017, down by $73.24 million from the level of the previous month. In January last, the remittance stood at $1.01 billion. It was $1.34 billion in February 2016.
Talking to BBN, a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank, said the flow of inward remittances dropped significantly in the recent months following lower development activities in the Middle East countries along with rising trend of sending hard-earned money by expatriate Bangladeshis using informal channel.
There has been a gradual impact on the flow of inward remittance of the tightening of immigration rules by different countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Malaysia, the central banker explained.
Currently, 29 exchange houses are operating across the globe along with 1132 drawing arrangements set up abroad to expedite the remittance inflow, according to the central banker.
The central bank of Bangladesh 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 reserves.
Currently, most banks are 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.
Talking to BBN, a senior private banker said: "We're still serious about increasing the inflow of remittances through official channels to meet our internal foreign-exchange demand.”
He also said most of the banks are now trying to establish new contacts with overseas exchange houses so that the migrant workers can find it easy to send money back home.
BBN/SSR/AD