The flow of inward remittances increased further in April 2022 due to celebration of the Eid-ul-Fitr, the largest religious festival of the Muslims, officials said.
The money, sent home by Bangladeshis working abroad, amounted to US$2.01 billion in April, up by $149.76 million from the previous month.
The amount stood at $1.86 billion in March 2022 and $1.49 billion in February 2022. The flow of inward remittances was $2.07 billion in April 2021, according to the central bank's latest statistics.
"The flow of inward remittances increased in April 2022 mainly due to celebration of the Eid festival," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE while explaining the latest trend of inward remittances.
He also said the remittance inflow might fall slightly in May.
"But it might rise again in June ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha," the central banker predicted.
The official figures show that the inward flow of remittance dropped by more than 16 per cent to $17.31 billion during the July-April period of the current fiscal year (FY), 2021-22, from $20.66 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
Senior bankers, however, said the government's incentive along with depreciating mode of the Bangladesh Taka (BDT) against the US dollar helped to increase the flow of inward remittances.
The government raised the cash incentive on inward remittance to 2.5 per cent from 2.0 per cent - to encourage the remitters for sending their money through official channels instead of the illegal "hundi" system, which can help boost the country's foreign exchange reserves.
Effective from January 01, the new rate was a new year's gift to the remitters from the prime minister, according to a statement issued by the finance ministry earlier.
On the other hand, the local currency depreciated by 45 poisha against the greenback in the inter-bank foreign exchange (forex) market from March 21 to April 26, mainly due to higher demand for the US currency to settle import payment obligations.
The US dollar was quoted at Tk 86.45 each in the forex market on April 26 against Tk 86.00 on March 21. It also remained unchanged at Tk 86.45 on Thursday (May 5).
Currently, more than 300 exchange houses are operating across the globe, and nearly 1,500 drawing arrangements have been set up abroad to boost remittance inflow, according to the BB officials.
Talking to the FE, a senior official of a leading private commercial bank said expansion of agent banking along with pro-active attitude of some banks helped increase the flow of inward remittances through the official channels in recent months.
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