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Inward remittances set to cross $15b this fiscal

Siddique Islam | June 09, 2015 00:00:00


Bangladesh is set to receive over $15 billion in inward remittance, marking the highest growth ever, by the end of this fiscal year (FY) 2014-15.

Officials claim various moves have already begun yielding results in terms of increased flow of money from the migrant Bangladeshis.

The remittance rises, incidentally, are taking place notwithstanding some sad happenings on the labour-migration front in recent times.

"We're confident about crossing the $15-billion mark in flow of inward remittances by the end of the FY'15," Ahsan Ullah, executive director of Bangladesh Bank (BB), told the FE Monday.

The central bank estimated the figure on the basis of last 11 months' remittance flow, registering a 7.21 per cent increase over the corresponding period of last year.

The flow of inward remittance rose to $13.87 billion in the July-March period of the current fiscal from $12.94 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.

The country received $225.19 million as remittance between June 01 and June 05 from Bangladeshi nationals who are working abroad, according to the central bank's latest statistics, released Monday.

The BB's executive director expressed the hope that the inflow of remittances might cross $1.30 billion by the end of this month ahead of Eid-ul Fitr, the biggest religious festival for the Muslims.

Talking to the FE, another BB senior official said the central bank is working continuously to increase the flow of inward remittance from different parts of the world.

"We're allowing local banks to establish exchange houses and drawing arrangements abroad in this connection," the central banker explained.

Currently, 34 exchange houses operating across the globe have set up 1,078 drawing arrangements abroad to expedite the remittance inflow, the BB official added.

He also said stable exchange of Bangladesh taka against the US dollar contributed to rise in the flow of remittance in the recent months.

In FY'14, the inflow of remittance decreased by 1.61 per cent to $14.23 billion from $14.46 billion a year ago due to political turmoil and static trend in manpower export.

The BB earlier took a series of measures, including creation of mass awareness so the expatriate Bangladeshis send their hard-earned money home through the banking channel instead of the illegal "hundi" system, which help in boosting the country's foreign-exchange reserves.

The foreign-exchange reverses stood at $23.91 billion Sunday, buoyed by the upward trend in inward remittance.

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