Remittance crosses $2-billion mark for second consecutive month

Bangladesh's remittance earnings crossed the $2-billion mark for the second consecutive month in August.

The remittance receipt logged a 12.6 per cent year-on-year growth in August, but the figure—$2.03 billion—was 3 per cent lower than earnings of July this year.

August's remittance figure was $58 million lower than July, but $228 million higher than 2021's August, according to Bangladesh Bank data.

A Bangladesh Bank official said the country's foreign exchange reserve has been decreasing in recent months due to the falling remittances and higher import payments against slower-than-expected export earnings.

The reserves yesterday stood at $39.05 billion compared to $39.21 billion the day before.

The reserves stood at $39.59 billion at the end of July compared to $41.82 billion in June this year.

Between Monday and Wednesday, the banking watchdog had sold $367 million to different banks to help both the governments and businesses settle import bills for essential commodities, the official said.

Between July and August, around $2.50 billion were supplied to the market by the central bank from its reserves.

It also injected a record of $7.62 billion into the market in the last fiscal year.

The latest drop in the reserves will create pressure on the exchange rate of the taka against the US dollar further, a Bangladesh Bank official said.

The fall of taka's exchange rate means import payments will swell further, which will hike the price of imported commodities.

The exchange rate of the taka against the US dollar stood at Tk 95 yesterday, up 11.5 per cent year-on-year.

The exchange rate for the importers, however, experienced an around 20 per cent year-on-year fall.