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If the current trend of remittance inflow to Bangladesh continues, the country will be unable to meet its monthly remittance target of $2 billion in November.
According to Bangladesh Bank data, expatriates sent only $1.05 billion in the first 18 days of the ongoing month.
This figure was published in a report of the statistics department of the central bank on Sunday.
If the sluggish growth continues until the end of this month, remittance figures would likely hover around $1.7 billion, well below the $2 billion target.
Data analysis shows that at the beginning of the ongoing fiscal year – namely July and August – this amount was above the $2 billion mark, when expatriates sent $2.09 and $2.03 billion respectively.
But after that, remittance began to decline, as only $1.53 billion and $1.52 billion were sent by overseas wage earners in September and October respectively.
Regarding the declining trend, former Bangladesh Bank governor Salehuddin Ahmed told Dhaka Tribune earlier: “Still, there is a difference of Tk6-7 between legal and illegal channels in terms of dollar exchange rate. Also, the depreciation of taka against the dollar is one of the reasons for this.”
On the other hand, due to the improvement of the global Covid-19 situation, the illegal channel hundi operation of sending money was also normalizing again, so expatriate workers were sending money through this channel, owing to lower rates, he explained.
Not only that, banks often harassed customers while withdrawing the remittance money, the former governor added.
Data analysis for the first 18 days of November also revealed that during this time, remittance through five state owned commercial banks was $188.2 million.
Remittances through two specialized banks were $23.98 million and nine foreign commercial banks brought in $3.70 million.
Like always, 42 private commercial banks got the highest amount of remittances.
During this period $843.94 million came through their banking channels.
The largest remitter was Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd (IBBL), who brought in $272.28 million in the first 18 days of this month.
(DT)
