Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh received $1.93 billion in inward remittances in November, up by 21 percent year-on-year, as banks offer a higher rate for the US dollar to collect remittance, according to Bangladesh Bank (BB) data released yesterday.
The country received $1.59 billion in remittances in November last year.
However, November’s receipts 2.42 percent down from a month ago, where inward remittance in October was amounted to $1.98 billion, the central bank figures showed.
Expatriates sent $643 million more remittances in October this year compared to September, at a growth rate of 48.20 percent.
Remittances stood at $1.33 billion in September, which was the lowest in the last 41 months.
Bankers have underlined reasons for the increase in remittances – banks are buying at a higher rate, and the number of expatriates is rising.
Some banks are offering the expatriates at least Tk 5 to Tk 6 per dollar more than the permitted rate fixed by the Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers Association (BAFEDA) and the Association of Bankers Bangladesh (ABB) to tide over the foreign exchange shortage and settle import bills.
Industry insiders also said despite the banks attempts, the inflow has not received as much fillip as expected because of the growing use of the hundi system, an illegal cross-border transaction.
In the first five months (July-November) of the current financial year 2023-24, Bangladesh received $8.81 billion in remittances which is slight higher the amount received in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
Out of the total remittance flow in November, state-owned commercial banks received $ 144.26 million while $ 53.18 million dollars had come through the specialized banks.
Besides, local private banks and foreign private banks have received $1.726 billion and $ 5.92 million respectively.
Meanwhile, the remittance inflow is one of the vital sources of the country’s external earnings to boost foreign reserve.
However, foreign exchange reserves in the Bangladesh Bank have further decreased, dropping by 120 million dollars in one week. According to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) calculations last Wednesday, the reserves fell to 19.40 billion and the total reserve was 25.02 billion dollars.
