Remittances mark 3.55 per cent fall

FE Report | Published: June 03, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

The country's inward remittances in the current fiscal year (FY) 2013-14 are unlikely to reach the last year's amount as the earnings registered a 3.55 per cent fall until May last.
Bangladesh received a total of $12.93 billion during the July-May period of the FY 14 against $13.40 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, according to the central bank statistics, released Monday.
The country received $14.46 billion as remittances in the FY 13.
"We're expecting that the flow of inward remittances may cross $14 billion by the end of this fiscal year," Ahsan Ullah, executive director of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), told the FE Monday.
The flow of inward remittances fell slightly in the month of May from that of the previous month despite improvement of the political situation.
The remittances from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad were estimated at $1.20 billion in May, last, less by $ 28.39 million from the level of the previous month. In April last the remittances stood at $1.23 billion. It was $1.09 billion in May, 2013.
"It's a satisfactory level of inward remittance flow," the BB executive director noted.
Talking to the FE, another BB official said the central bank is working continuously to expedite the flow of inward remittances from different parts of the world.
Currently, 32 exchange houses, operating across the globe, have set up 987 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.
Country's foreign exchange reserve rose to $20. 30 billion Monday from $20.27 billion in the previous working day, another BB official said.
Four state-run commercial banks and dozens of private commercial banks have stepped up efforts to increase remittance flow from the Middle East, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, Italy and the United States.
"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," a senior official of a leading commercial bank said.