Remittances post 46% growth in September

Expatriate Bangladeshis sent $2.15 billion in remittances last month, the second-highest single month posting in the country's history, up 46% on the receipts of the same month of last year.

The highest amount of remittances in a single month in the history of the country was $2.59 billion in the first month of the current fiscal year.

Expatriate Bangladeshis sent $1.96 billion in remittances in August. September’s figure was 9.69% higher than that amount, according to the Bangladesh Bank latest data.

Remittance inflow increased by 48.45% to $6.71 billion in the July-September period of the current fiscal year, compared to the same period of the last fiscal year, as per BB data.

The remittance earning is increasing day by day also amid the Covid-19 pandemic as the government and the central bank took several initiatives to boost remittance earning, said a top Bangladesh Bank official.

The 2% cash incentive on remittance earning has played a vital role behind the increasing trend, he added.

However, former lead economist at the World Bank Dhaka office Zahid Hussain said Bangladeshi expatriates were sending more money to their relatives as most of their relatives had lost their sources of income. 

Besides, a huge number of Bangladeshis had sent all their savings to their families before they returned home, he remarked.

Most expatriates had sent their hard–earned money through banking channels instead of hundi owing to the pandemic, which had also boosted the remittance earnings, he explained.

The country’s foreign exchange reserves hit a new record amid the pandemic due to the increasing trend of remittance earning. 

On September 1 this year, the reserve reached $39.04 billion for the first time, as per central bank data.