Inflow of remittances declining since Aug
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
Naim-Ul-Karim
The country received US$701.40 million worth of remittance from expatriate Bangladeshis in September, lowest in a single month since January this year, official sources said.
Quoting statistics of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), they said expatriate Bangladeshis remitted $732.90 million in August, $829.50 million in July, 753.58 million in June and 730.26 million in May.
A central bank official said: "We think that the inflow of remittances, which recorded 18.75 per cent growth in September over that of the same period last year, have been declining since August due mainly to slowdown in employment and soaring living costs."
"Workers are failing to save enough money to send home as their living cost has gone up to a large extent due to soaring inflation," he said.
Officials said statistics of the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training shows that overseas jobs for Bangladeshis in the fist nine months (January-September) of this year in more than 100 countries, however, recorded over 16.39 per cent growth despite slowdown in September.
"We issued clearance to 688,574 people in the first nine months until September to leave the country with overseas jobs against 591,607 in the same period of last year," a senior official in the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment said.
The officials said 69,768 Bangladeshis found overseas jobs in September, which is 23.79 per cent down from that of the same period the last year.
Of the total overseas employment in September, a BMET official said, 3,474 found jobs in Saudi Arabia, 37,491 in UAE, 13,863 in Malaysia, 3,617 in Oman and 5,322 in Singapore.
Recruiting agency sources said overseas jobs for Bangladeshis have started declining as some countries, including Saudi Arabia, have almost stopped recruiting manpower from the country.
The country received US$701.40 million worth of remittance from expatriate Bangladeshis in September, lowest in a single month since January this year, official sources said.
Quoting statistics of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), they said expatriate Bangladeshis remitted $732.90 million in August, $829.50 million in July, 753.58 million in June and 730.26 million in May.
A central bank official said: "We think that the inflow of remittances, which recorded 18.75 per cent growth in September over that of the same period last year, have been declining since August due mainly to slowdown in employment and soaring living costs."
"Workers are failing to save enough money to send home as their living cost has gone up to a large extent due to soaring inflation," he said.
Officials said statistics of the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training shows that overseas jobs for Bangladeshis in the fist nine months (January-September) of this year in more than 100 countries, however, recorded over 16.39 per cent growth despite slowdown in September.
"We issued clearance to 688,574 people in the first nine months until September to leave the country with overseas jobs against 591,607 in the same period of last year," a senior official in the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment said.
The officials said 69,768 Bangladeshis found overseas jobs in September, which is 23.79 per cent down from that of the same period the last year.
Of the total overseas employment in September, a BMET official said, 3,474 found jobs in Saudi Arabia, 37,491 in UAE, 13,863 in Malaysia, 3,617 in Oman and 5,322 in Singapore.
Recruiting agency sources said overseas jobs for Bangladeshis have started declining as some countries, including Saudi Arabia, have almost stopped recruiting manpower from the country.