Bangladesh expatriates sent home a record US$6.148 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal, marking a 27.01 per cent growth over the same period of the last fiscal, officials said.
The remittances from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad were estimated at $784.47 million in February last, a fall by $74.56 million from the previous month. In January 2009, the remittance was worth $859 million, according to the central bank statistics, released Tuesday.
"The flow of remittances is still at a satisfactory level," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE, adding that the total amount of remittances dropped slightly in February over that of the previous month due mainly to fewer working days.
The country received $6.148 billion during the July-February period of fiscal 2008-09 against $4.840 billion of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, the BB data showed.
"We've already asked the commercial banks for taking effective measures to expedite the flow of inward remittances from different parts of the world including the Middle East, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Italy and Singapore," the BB official added.
"Most of the expatriates now can easily send home their money by using banking channels," another BB official said, adding that the central bank was now allowing the commercial banks to sign deal with the non-governmental organisations (NGO) for disbursement of remittances, particularly in the country's rural areas.
The central bank earlier took a series of measures to encourage the expatriate Bangladeshis to send home their hard-earned money through the formal banking channel instead of 'hundi' and boost the country's foreign exchange reserve.
Currently, some private commercial banks (PCBs) along with the state-owned commercial banks (SCBs) are desperately trying to increase the flow of inward remittances through setting up drawing arrangement with overseas exchange houses from the different parts of the world.
The country's foreign exchange reserve stood at $5.435 billion Tuesday after making a routine payment to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), the BB officials added.
Bangladesh made a routine payment of $472 million to the ACU against imports for the period of January-February of the current year.
