Logs only $700 million in 23 days of April

Remittance sliding as pandemic leaves migrant workers jobless

HM Murtuza | New Age  Apr 28,2020

A file photo shows incoming passengers being checked with a hand-held scanner at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital amid the global coronavirus outbreak.  Inflow of remittance earnings slid drastically in April as the global economy has come to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic in most of the countries in the world, leaving thousands of migrant Bangladeshi workers jobless.— New Age photo

Inflow of remittance earnings slid drastically in April as the global economy has come to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic in most of the countries in the world, leaving thousands of migrant Bangladeshi workers jobless.

The plunge in remittance inflow has created pressure on the foreign exchange situation in Bangladesh.

As per the Bangladesh Bank sources, Bangladeshi expatriates in the first 23 days in April sent around $700 million, $400 million lower than the country’s receipt, $1.1 billion, of foreign currency in the same period last month.

Sources said that the trend suggested that the inward remittance might fall below $1 billion in April after sliding to a 15-month low of $1.29 billion in March this year.

The joblessness of the expatriates is not only making them or their families vulnerable but also leaving pressure on the country’s foreign exchange market.

According to a government estimation, over one lakh Bangladeshi workers returned home jobless in one month amid the outbreak of novel coronavirus globally.

About two lakh Bangladeshi migrant workers came back home from February 26 to March 26 and half of them were jobless.

A large number of Bangladeshi migrants became jobless in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and the Maldives due to economic downturns.

Besides, many Bangladeshi migrants in European countries became jobless due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Of the jobless employees, many of them were in need of financial assistance as their employers refrained from paying any money during the pandemic.

Former interim government adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam told New Age, ‘Firstly, the inward remittance keeps exchange rate of the dollar stable and thus keeps the prices of commodities along with the economic situation stable,’ he said.

Secondly, the receivers of the remittance are barely above the poverty line, he said, adding, ‘Many of the families might fall into the poverty line if the migrant workers remain jobless or come to the country due to termination.’

Considering the migrant workers’ contribution to the country’s economy, the government should consider giving financial assistance to the jobless migrant workers or to their families, Mirza Aziz said.

To keep the exchange rate of the dollar stable and to keep prices of commodities stable in the country, the government in April resumed dollar sales after buying the greenback for 10 day in March.

So far, the BB has injected around $180 million in the market in April as many of the banks were clearing import payments at Tk 1.5 to Tk 2 above the interbank exchange rate of the dollar, Tk 84.95.

In March, the country’s exports and remittance earnings dropped by 18.29 per cent and 11.83 per cent respectively due to the jolt in the global economy after the coronavirus outbreak began in China.

Bankers said that the fall in export earnings and remittance earnings had resulted in an increase in the amount of dollars in the banks.

They also urged the bankers to increase dollar sales to keep the exchange rate of the dollar stable.

Riding on 2 per cent cash incentive and devaluation of the taka, remittance inflow in all the nine months except March of current fiscal year (2019-2020) had increased.

In the July-March period, remittance inflow increased by 16.14 per cent to $13.78 billion from $11.87 billion in the same period of the fiscal year 2018-2019.

On an occasion in March, BB governor Fazle Kabir expected that the country was heading towards the attainment of $20 billion remittance earnings in the fiscal year 2019-2020.

The momentum of remittance inflow, however, has been lost due to the outbreak of coronavirus.