Bangladesh received $1.65 billion in remittances in the first 28 days of July, signalling a decline owing to the internet blackout, which blocked banks from collecting much-needed foreign currencies from migrant workers.
The inflow was 16 percent lower compared to the full month of July a year ago, according to central bank data. It was also 35 percent lower than the remittance inflow in June this year.
“Remittances did not arrive as the internet connection was disrupted for four or five days,” said Selim RF Hussain, chairman of the Association of Bankers Bangladesh (ABB).
Bangladesh witnessed an internet outage around 9pm on July 18 in the face of violence, deaths, and injuries centring the quota reform movement.
The government only restored broadband connection on a limited scale from July 23 before restoring broadband internet across the country the next day.
Remittance collection remained suspended during the outage, said bankers, adding overall flow of receipts did not pick up even after the restoration of the internet.
Central bank data showed that the inflow of remittances, a key source of foreign currencies, stood at $138 million from July 21 to July 27, the lowest among the four weeks of the month.
Hussain, also managing director and CEO of BRAC Bank, said overall flow may fall this month because of the internet outage.
In the four weeks of July this year, daily average remittance flow declined 7 percent year-on-year to $59.18 million.
The daily average inflow so far in July was also lower than the daily inflow of $84.7 million in June this year.
Hussain said expatriates send money to their families based on their needs.
“I do not believe that remittance inflows will be affected due to any negative campaign by any group,” he added.
Bangladesh Bank also believes that remittance flow has been returning to normalcy for the past three days.
The flow will increase in the coming days, said BB spokesman Md Mezbaul Haque.
Remittances grew 10 percent year-on-year to $23.9 billion in FY24, according to central bank data.
Daily Star
