Remittance inflow exceeds $7b in 11 months
FE Report | Wednesday, 4 June 2008
Remittances from expatriate Bangladeshis exceeded US$7.0 billion in the first eleven months of the current fiscal, marking a 31.14 per cent growth over the same period of the last fiscal.
The country received $7.163 billion during the July-May period of the fiscal 2007-08 compared with $5.462 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal, according to the central bank statistics, released Tuesday.
"We expect the flow of inward remittance to reach nearly $8.0 billion by the end of this fiscal," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.
He also said the central bank is now planning to take some effective measures aiming to encourage expatriate Bangladeshis for sending home more money.
"Remittances continued to rise sharply due to massive growth in manpower export and implementation of the Anti-money Laundering Act that influenced the expatriates to use official channels for sending money back home," the official observed.
More than 295,155 Bangladeshis found jobs in over 100 countries during the January-April period, up from 192,725 in the same period of the last year, according to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) statistics.
The remittances from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad was estimated at $732.58 million in May last, a fall of $49.13 million from the previous month.
Last April, the total amount of money remitted by Bangladeshi wage earners amounted to $781.71 million, which was $237.97 million higher than that of the corresponding month of the previous fiscal, the BB's data showed.
The country's foreign exchange reserve stood at $5.35 billion Tuesday due to robust remittance growth, the central bank officials added.
The BB has already enacted a series of anti-money laundering laws and simplified money exchange rules to encourage expatriate Bangladeshis to avoid the illegal hundi channel.
It has also allowed the commercial banks to partner with the non-governmental organisations (NGO) having branches all over the country for disbursement of remittances, particularly in the rural areas.
The country received $7.163 billion during the July-May period of the fiscal 2007-08 compared with $5.462 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal, according to the central bank statistics, released Tuesday.
"We expect the flow of inward remittance to reach nearly $8.0 billion by the end of this fiscal," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.
He also said the central bank is now planning to take some effective measures aiming to encourage expatriate Bangladeshis for sending home more money.
"Remittances continued to rise sharply due to massive growth in manpower export and implementation of the Anti-money Laundering Act that influenced the expatriates to use official channels for sending money back home," the official observed.
More than 295,155 Bangladeshis found jobs in over 100 countries during the January-April period, up from 192,725 in the same period of the last year, according to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) statistics.
The remittances from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad was estimated at $732.58 million in May last, a fall of $49.13 million from the previous month.
Last April, the total amount of money remitted by Bangladeshi wage earners amounted to $781.71 million, which was $237.97 million higher than that of the corresponding month of the previous fiscal, the BB's data showed.
The country's foreign exchange reserve stood at $5.35 billion Tuesday due to robust remittance growth, the central bank officials added.
The BB has already enacted a series of anti-money laundering laws and simplified money exchange rules to encourage expatriate Bangladeshis to avoid the illegal hundi channel.
It has also allowed the commercial banks to partner with the non-governmental organisations (NGO) having branches all over the country for disbursement of remittances, particularly in the rural areas.