Record inflow of remittances in January

Bangladeshi migrant workers sent a record amount of remittance home in January, reports bdnews24.com.

They sent $1.59 billion in inward remittances to Bangladesh in the first month of the year, a new monthly record.

The amount is about 15 per cent higher than in January 2018.

Migrant workers had sent over $9.08 billion in remittances to the country in the first seven months of the fiscal year, according to data from Bangladesh Bank.

The amount over the same period in fiscal 2017-18 was $8.31 billion.

Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of Policy Research Institute, suggested devaluing the taka's exchange rate with the dollar further to increase the effect of remittances.

Many countries, including India, China and Vietnam, have extensively devalued their currency against the dollar, he said, but Bangladesh has done comparatively little.

The researcher said the dollar's exchange rate had increased 7.0 per cent against the rupee in the past six months, but the value of the dollar against the taka had increased only 0.18 per cent.

"We believe the exchange rate should be 'set' at Tk 85 to a dollar soon to increase export earnings and the value of remittance inflows."