Remittance inflow up by 4.23pc in Dec

Staff Reporter :
Remittance inflow increased by 4.23 per cent year-on-year reaching $1.7 billion in December showing green light for the foreign currency reserves.
The amount is highest out of the last four months, which is showing ray of hopes for the country’s economy.
Migrant workers brought home $1.63 billion in December last year.
According to the latest data of the central bank, the country also showed that the remittance flowed increased by 2.48 per cent to $10.49 billion in first six months (July to December) of the current fiscal year (2022-23), which was $10.24 billion during the same period of the previous year.
Of the remittances received in December, $24.65 million came through state-owned banks, $3.87 million through a specialised bank, $1.4 billion through private banks and $6.7 million through foreign banks.
As recorded in the past, Islami Bank was the highest remittances receiver this year too. The bank received $ 50.62 million, the central bank data showed.
Experts said offshore earnings have dropped slightly and trading in hundi, an illegal way of sending foreign earning, has gone up after the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh and Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers’ Association fixed the exchange rate for remittance last year. They said the popularity of hundi would not dry up unless the government puts an end to money laundering through over invoicing and under invoicing.
It is not possible to increase remittance as long as the demand for hundi is in place, they observed.
They said the government and the central bank need to be stricter to help increase remittance.
The number of Bangladeshi migrant workers in different countries has been increased significantly in recent time.
Bangladesh sent 7.84 lakh workers in the first eight months (January- August) of the current year. Of these workers, 88 per cent went to the Gulf countries, the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) data showed.
Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh, told The New Nation, “On the remittance front, there are still some shortfalls that need to be overcome to increase the foreign currency reserves.”
“Workers are going abroad in higher numbers every month, but remittances are still not coming through official channels as much as expected,” he added.