Ahmed Shahin
The prodigious flow of remittance from expatriates working in the Middle-eastern countries, has reinforced the overall outlay of the country’s remittal money.
According to a latest report of the Bangladesh Bank’s monetary policy division, Bangladeshi workers from the seven countries in the region sent a record amount of $968.2 crore in the financial year 2018-19.
The figure covers 59 percent of the total remittance receipts, as the foreign Bangladeshis during this period sent a total of $1641.96 crore through banking channel.
The expatriates from the seven Middle-eastern countries sent a total of $856.75 crore in fiscal 2017-18.
As per this estimation, the remittance receipts from this region increased by $111.45 crore or 13 percent in the last fiscal in comparison with that in the previous fiscal.
Bangladesh Bank officials said, huge remitting from this region let them register record remittance inflow in the last fiscal, keeping the last few years’ sluggish performance aside.
The Bangladesh Bank report also shows that out of 10 top remittance sending countries for Bangladesh, six are in this region.
Central bank officials said, due to steps to intercept Hundi and encourage banking channel transactions, the remittance flow increased last fiscal.
According to BB’s country-based remittance sending data, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as usual was the top remittance sending country for Bangladesh in the last fiscal.
The expatriates working there sent $311 crore during this period, 19 percent of the total earnings in the same period.
The next top countries are United Arab Emirates, the USA, Kuwait, UK, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Italy, and Bahrain respectively.
In the fiscal 2018-19, $254 crore in remittance came from the UAE, followed by 184.28 crore from the USA, $146.33 crore from Kuwait, $175.56 crore from the UK, $119.76 crore from Malaysia, and $106.6 crore from Oman.
Besides, $102.39 crore remittance was sent from Qatar, $75.78 crore from Italy, and $47 crore from Bahrain respectively.
After analyzing the data, it was found that the expatriates sent record remittance in the fiscal 2018-19.
In the last four years, the next highest amount of remittance receipts was registered in the fiscal 2014-15, that was $1531.69 crore.
Besides, $1493.11 crore remittance was registered in the fiscal 2015-16, $1276.94 crore in the fiscal 2016-17, and $1498 crore in the fiscal 2017-18.
