Remittance earnings drop 28% in July
Of the banks, Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited collected the highest $550.30 million in remittance sent by expatriate Bangladeshis in July this year
Highlights
- Remittance drops 28% to $1.87bn in July
- 29% remittance came through Islami Bank
- In FY21, remittance reached all-time high of $24.78bn
- Overseas employment rose by 8% to 1.95 lakh in first 5 months of 2021
- Saudi Arabia is major destination for overseas employment
The flow of inward remittances dropped by 28% to $1.87 billion in July this year when compared to the corresponding period of last year, according to the latest data provided by the Bangladesh Bank.
Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute (PRI), said generally, there is a gap between the definition and the reality of remittance in our country.
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"Last year, amid the pandemic, there were some portfolio investments from expats and a large amount of black money returned to the country. So, the inflow of remittance was high.
"But now, it's time to say that the income of our migrant workers has dropped drastically and many of them have already come back home. So, it's quite natural that the remittance flow declines," he added.
Of the banks, Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited collected the highest $550.30 million in remittance sent by expatriate Bangladeshis in July this year.
Agrani Bank collected $194.80 million, Dutch-Bangla Bank $229.11 million and Sonali Bank brought $117.49 million in remittance last month.
The country's remittance earnings reached an all-time high of $24.78 billion last year amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The central bank said in the monetary policy statement for FY22 that the stronger inflows of the wage earners' remittances in the 2020-21 fiscal year was attributable mainly to the government's drives to prevent remittance inflows through informal channels and encourage remittance through the formal banking channel by offering 2% incentives to the beneficiaries of the overseas wage earners along with the central bank's initiatives to ensure a time and cost-effective money transfer process.
With July's remittance earnings, the country's foreign exchange reserves reached $45.78 billion on the 28th of the month. The figure was 1.31% lower compared to the previous month and this drop is caused by increased imports during this period.
On 8 October last year, the forex reserves crossed the $40-billion mark.
According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, the number of overseas jobs held by Bangladeshi expatriates rose to 1.95 lakh during the January–May 2021 period from 1.81 lakh in 2020.
The overseas employment of Bangladeshi nationals reached its all-time peak at 10.08 lakh jobs in 2017 when the country's remittance income was $13.52 billion.
