Remittance up by $6.4b in FY25

Remittance in Bangladesh crossed $30 billion for the first time and rose by a record $6.4 billion in the fiscal year 2024-25.

During July to June of FY25, the country received $30.32 billion in remittance, up 26.81 percent year-on-year, as per the latest data from the Bangladesh Bank.

Before this, Bangladesh received the highest volume of remittance at $24.8 billion in fiscal year 2020-21­.

In June, the last month of the just-concluded fiscal year, Bangladesh received $2.81 billion in remittance, up by 11 percent from the same month of the previous fiscal year.

The surge in money sent home by Bangladeshi expatriates is being credited to a combination of factors, such as a narrowing gap between official and informal exchange rates, a clampdown on money laundering, and a renewed sense of patriotism among Bangladeshis living abroad after the political changeover in August last year.

This has lifted the country's gross foreign exchange reserves to $26.32 billion, the highest since October 2022.

Forex reserves were propped up by the release of $1.34 billion as the third and fourth instalments of the International Monetary Fund's loan programme and budget support from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and other development partners, said a BB official.

"We are observing that Bangladeshi expatriates who previously did not send their money through banking channels are now using formal channels," said a senior official of the central bank.

The BB official said hundi, an illegal cross-border transaction system, declined likely due to the political transition, leading to more remittance inflows being directed through official channels.