Remittance has continued to increase amid the crisis, up 48.20 percent to stand at $550 million in only seven days in August over that in the same period of the previous year.
MdSerajul Islam, executive director and spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank, told Bangladesh Post, “The dollar rate has increased in the last few months. The amount of incentive to remitters has been increased from two percent to two and a half percent. For these reasons expatriates are now sending remittances through banking channels and remittances are increasing as well.”
If this trend continues, the amount of remittances will exceed $2 billion by the end of the month like in the previous month, he expects.
He said, “Increase in remittances was very necessary this time. Import costs have started coming down due to various measures. Thanks to the increase in exports as well as remittances, we hope that the currency market will return to normal now.”
However, in the first seven days in August 2021, the remittance stood at $371 million.
Bangladesh fetched record $2.10 billion remittances in July, the first month of the 2022-23 fiscal year, due to Eid-ulAzha festival when expatriate Bangladeshis usually send more money home than at other times.
The figure is the highest in 14 months and 12 percent higher than the $1.87 billion remittance the country received in the same month of the previous FY.
Meanwhile, the interbank currency market sold at Tk 94.80 per dollar on Wednesday. The banks bought dollars from Bangladesh Bank at this rate. However, due to the huge demand for dollars, banks have collected dollars from expatriates at the rate of up to Tk 110.
According to that, if an expatriate sends 1 dollar to the country through a banking channel, he or she gets Tk 112.50 with a cash incentive of Tk 2.50.
Dollar rate is almost the same in the curb market or open market. That is why, expatriates now are not taking risks through illegal hundi and sending money through banks instead of other means, bankers said.
Due to the high demand for dollars in the market, banks are providing more cash incentives to bring in remittances to the country which pushed the remittances up, a banker said.
However, Eid-ul-Fitr was celebrated in the country on May 3. Expatriates sent a total of $2.09 billion remittance to the country in April ahead of Eid. It was the highest amount in a single month of the last fiscal year.
Meanwhile, the country received $22.07 billion in remittances in 2021, which was more than that in any other year in the history of Bangladesh. This inflow was $21.78 billion in 2020 and $18.33 billion in 2019.
This important index of the economy increased last December and January after a decline for five consecutive months (July-November 2021). In December and January, remittance was $1.63 billion and $1.70 billion respectively.
In February, this inflow fell again as expatriates sent $1.49 billion during the time.
On the other hand, the country’s migrants sent home $1.86 billion in March ahead of Ramadan this year, which is 25 percent more than that in the previous month and also the highest in the past eight months.