Inward remittance flow falls by 15pc in Aug

FE Team | Published: September 06, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
The flow of inward remittances fell by 14.71 per cent in August last over the previous month, but it might bounce back in September at the advent of holy month of Ramadan, central bank officials said.
"We are hopeful about a rise in the flow of inward remittances in the month of September due to the Holy Ramadan as well as Eid-ul-Fitr festival," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Wednesday.
He, however, said the student unrest and subsequent development in the country during August might have affected the remittance flow. The number of working days was only 20 days in August, he added.
Market operators said the wide gap in exchange rate of US dollar between the informal (kerb) market and banking channel is partly responsible for the drop in the inflow of remittance.
"The difference in exchange rates between banking channel and informal market is over Tk 3.00 and that has discouraged the expatriate Bangladeshis to remit their hard earned money through banking channel," a senior official of a commercial bank told the FE.
The buying rate of US dollar in the kerb market was higher by Tk 3.30 Wednesday over that of the rate quoted by commercial banks.
The greenback was sold between Tk 72.30 and Tk 72.40 in the informal market against buying rate of Tk 72.00 Wednesday. The commercial banks, however, were selling the greenback between Tk 69.00 and Tk 69.25 against buying in the range between Tk 68.20 and Tk 68.70.
The overall inflow of remittances crossed US$ 1.0 billion in the first two months of the current fiscal, marking an 18.86 per cent growth over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
The remittance earnings in the period came as a continuation to last fiscal's trend and record inflow of $5.98 billion. The growth in 2006-07 was 24.52 per cent over the previous fiscal.
According to the provisional estimates of the central bank, the country received $1.05 billion during the July-August period of fiscal 2007-08 against $884.02 million in the same period of the previous fiscal.
The remittances from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad were estimated at $483.66 million in August last compared with $567.11 million in July last.
The central bank earlier took a series of measures to encourage the expatriate Bangladeshis to send their money through the formal banking channel instead of the illegal "hundi" system and boost the country's foreign exchange reserves.
Besides, the BB has already directed the commercial banks to expedite delivery of remittances to the beneficiaries at the quickest possible time to encourage expatriates to use the banking channel for overseas fund transfers.