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The flow of inward remittances dropped further in October after money transfers through informal channels such as hundi resurfaced after a lull caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The money sent home by Bangladeshis working abroad amounted to $1.65 billion in October 2021, down by $79 million from the previous month’s level, according to the central bank’s latest statistics.
In September last, the remittances stood at $1.73 billion. It was $2.10 billion in October 2020.
The flow of inward remittances dropped by nearly 20 per cent to $7.05 billion during the July-October period of the current fiscal year (FY), 2021-22 from $ 8.81 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) data showed.
“Higher gap between formal banking channel exchange rate of the US dollar against the local currency and kerb market has encouraged illegal hundi activities in recent months,” a senior official of a leading private commercial bank told the FE on Monday.
Currently, there is a gap of around Tk 4.0 between the exchange rate of cash dollar in the open market, known as kerb market and telegraphic transfer (TT) clean rate for remitters.
The banks offered an average rate of Tk 84.7481 to the remitters for TT on Monday, according to the daily report of Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers’ Association.
On the other hand, the US currency was traded at around Tk 90 in the kerb market on the day as the demand for the greenback has gone up recently.
“The existing falling trend of inward remittance may continue in the near future if the hundi operations persist,” the private banker predicted.
(FE)
