Remittance inflow into the country dropped in the fiscal year 2013-14, breaking a continuous increasing trend of 12 years.
The country received total $14.22bn in the outgoing fiscal year which was 1.6% lower compared to $14.46bn in the previous fiscal year, according to the Bangladesh Bank data released on Thursday.
The remittance fall was due to sharp decline in manpower export from Bangladesh amid global financial recession, said a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank.
He said appreciation of taka against dollar, political unrest and sluggish investment climate also the factor that have pushed the remittance to lower.
The country received $1.19bn in the fiscal year 1994-1995. After the continuous increase, in five years, it dropped to $1.8bn in the fiscal year 2000-2001 from $1.94bn in 1999-2000.
The country witnessed continuous increase in trend, according to the Bangladesh Bank data, which was after the fiscal year 2000-2001.
According to the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, manpower export from Bangladesh may drop by 1.5-2 lakh this year due to global financial recession.
About 4 lakh to 4.5 lakh workers were expected to leave the country for different overseas destinations with jobs by the end of the current year. Although, more than 6 lakh workers had gone abroad with employment in 2012.
The Manpower export fall from the Middle Eastern countries have adversely impacted the remittance inflow as the country received highest remittance from these countries, said a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank.
“Saudi Arabia, the largest labour market with about 15 lakh Bangladeshi workers, reduced recruitment of Bangladeshi workers in last few years.
As a result, remittance inflows from the Middle Eastern countries dropped by 12% in the last 10 months of the outgoing fiscal year.”
In the foreign exchange market, taka appreciated only marginally to Tk77.67 per USD from Tk77.75
during the fiscal year, according to the Bangladesh Bank data.
Expatriate Bangladeshis sent more remittance in 2012-13 FY as the dollar was stronger than taka at that time.
According to the BB report, the value of one dollar was equivalent to Tk81.77 in July, 2012-13 FY. The whole fiscal saw the rate of dollar above Tk80.
The wage earners remitted $1.28bn in June in the last month of the fiscal year 2013-14 which was 21% higher than the amount that was sent in the same month of the previous fiscal year, according to the Bangladesh Bank data.
However, the inflow of remittance has increased in last few months of the outgoing fiscal year, as the country started to return in the normalcy after a prolonged political unrest, said the executive of the central bank.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
