Remittance inflow increased by 19.57 per cent to $8.71 billion in the first seven months of the current financial year compared with that of the corresponding period of FY 2011-12 when expatriate Bangladeshis had remitted $7.28 billion, showed Bangladesh Bank data released on Monday.
The remittance in January also increased by 7.64 per cent compared with that of the corresponding month in 2012.
The remittance in January stood at $1,314.74 million against $1,221.41 million in January 2012.
A BB official told New Age on Monday that the expatriate Bangladeshis had remitted more foreign currencies in the first seven months of FY 2012-13 as Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha were celebrated in August and October.
Besides, a significant number of Bangladeshi citizens went aboard in the period resulting that the remittance continued to be in upward trend, he said.
He said the remittance would cross $14 billion easily after end of FY 2012-13 if the existing inflow of remittance continued in the rest of the months of this financial year.
The World Bank earlier in a report had projected that the country’s remittance would reach $14 billion in this financial year.
Another BB official said the central bank had purchased more than $2.549 billion from the local commercial banks between July 1 and January 23 to keep the value of the greenback strong against the taka for encouraging the expatriate Bangladeshis and exporters.
The BB data, however, showed that the greenback continued to depreciate against the taka frequently failing the central bank’s effort.
The dollar was quoted at Tk 79.20 in the inter-bank forex market on Monday against Tk 79.75 to Tk 79.80 on January 1, 2013.
The private commercial banks received $833.61 million in remittance in January while the state-owned commercial banks received $445.38 million, foreign commercial banks $20.30 million, and specialised banks $15.45 million.
Islami Bank Bangladesh received the highest remittance of $361.41 million among the PCBs, while Agrani Bank received the highest remittance of $156.04 million among the SCBs.
-With New Age input
