The inward flow of remittances has been on a downturn with the January receipts dropping more than 12 per cent, belying higher manpower export by official count.
Official sources said remittance inflow even recorded an overall negative growth in the last seven months, principally owing to oil woes in the Gulf states and currency depreciation in the western world.
Bangladeshi nationals working abroad sent US$1.15 billion in January last. The amount was lower by $160.65 million than the remittance earning in the previous month.
In December 2015, the remittance was $1.31 billion. It was $1.24 billion in January 15, according to the central bank's latest statistics, released Tuesday.
"Falling petroleum prices in the global market pushed down slightly the flow of inward remittances during the period under review," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE while explaining main causes of downturn in remittance.
Development activities in the Middle-Eastern countries are squeezing gradually because of lower prices of fuel oils, according to the central banker.
Also, depreciation of the Great Britain Pound (GBP) and the Euro against the US currency was attributed as one of the reasons for the remittance fall.
Bangladesh received $8.64 billion during the July-January period of the ongoing fiscal year (FY) 2015-16, recording a negative growth of 1.04 per cent over the same period of the previous fiscal, the BB data showed.
Some 63,998 job-seekers went abroad in the month of January 2016, nearly 126 per cent higher than that of the first month of the last calendar year, according to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) statistics.
A total of 28,333 Bangladeshi workers went abroad with jobs in January 2015, as per the BMET data.
Talking to the FE, another BB official said the central bank along with the government is now working to accelerate the flow of inward remittances from different parts of the world in 2016.
Currently, 34 exchange houses are operating across the globe, setting up 1117 drawing arrangements, to expedite the remittance inflow, he added.
The BB had earlier taken a series of measures to encourage expatriate Bangladeshis to send their hard-earned money through formal banking channel instead of illegal 'hundi' system. The motivation drive aimed at boosting the country's foreign-exchange reserves.
Currently, most banks are desperately trying to augment the inward flow of remittances from the Middle East, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Italy and the United States. "We're still serious about increasing the inflow of remittances through official channels to meet our internal foreign-exchange demand," a senior official of a leading private commercial bank said.
He also said most of the banks were now trying to establish new contacts with overseas exchange houses so that the migrant workers could find it easy to send money back home.
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