Bangladesh’s remittance inflow has registered a 17.3 percent growth in the just-concluded FY 2017-18
According to the latest figures from the central bank, remittances stood at $14.98 billion between July 2017 and June 2018.
Remittances sent by expatriates account for 12 percent of Bangladesh’s gross domestic product (GDP).
The latest figures put Bangladesh’s forex reserve at $33.17 billion.
In FY 2016-17, remittances amounted $12.76 billion, recording a 14.48 percent decline from the previous 2015-16 fiscal.
Bangladesh Bank attributed the bounce-back to efforts boosting remittances. “The central bank adopted multi-faceted initiatives as well as the commercial banks,” its Executive Director Kazi Saidur Rahman told Bangla Tribune.
Analysts, however, cited a stronger dollar behind the rise.
“Expatriates have sent more remittances as the dollar gained while banks also boosted efforts to increase it as imports have risen,” said Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of private thinktank Policy Research Institute.
More than half of the remittances come from expatriates in six Middle-eastern countries — Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain.