Expatriate Bangladeshis sent home a record $26.9 billion, up 23 percent year-on-year, in a development that will bring a huge sigh of relief to policymakers as they endeavour to shore up strained dollar stockpile.
Despite a record increase in remittance this year, experts and migrant workers say the government has yet to take meaningful steps to alleviate their suffering or ensure their benefits and welfare.
Migrant Bangladeshis sent home $2.39 billion in October
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Remittance inflows hit a seven-month high in March as expatriate Bangladeshis sent more money home for Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr.
Eminent economists have blamed the hundi market for the sorry state of Bangladesh’s forex reserves and the downward pressure on our exchange rate.
The following year, 757,731 migrant workers left the shore. But the remittance receipt was 10.9 percent lower at $13.61 billion.
Remittance flow to Bangladesh rose to a five-month high in January as banks have given all-out efforts to mobilise dollars from abroad to tackle the stress in the foreign exchange market.
Both global and local macro-challenges can have serious implications for the people of Bangladesh
Remittance inflow fell in 11 months of the current fiscal year mainly because a large number of migrants switched to informal channels like hundi from formal ones for sending money, say experts.
Till the end of May our inbound remittance totaled $19.19 billion, $3.6 billion dollar less than that last year. With the current downward trend, in an optimistic estimate, we can eye a near $21 billion by the end of the financial year which would be 15 per cent less on a year-on-year basis. But based on this figure alone will it be justified to arrive at a decision that the magic of remittance have waned, we have run out of means to fill the increasing trade gaps, and are quickly embracing a bleak financial future? Before siding with a yes or a no let us revisit the trend of remittance flow.
