Bangladesh’s remittances hit an all-time high of nearly 23 billion US dollars in July-May period of the current fiscal year 2020-21 ending this month.
Bangladesh’s Finance Ministry spokesman Gazi Towhidul Islam said on Tuesday that expatriate Bangladeshis remitted home 22.84 billion US dollars in July-May, 39.49 per cent higher than the same period a year ago.
He said Bangladeshis remitted home 2.17 billion US dollars in May, the highest monthly amount since July last year when the country received 2.60 billion US dollars.
Seeking anonymity, a Bangladesh Bank official said the July-May income is the highest-ever remittance the country received in a single year since its independence in 1971.
Bangladeshis in the 2019-20 fiscal year remitted home 18.21 billion US dollars, which used to be the highest remittances in a single year.
“Usually inflow of remittances always increase before months of the Eid festival,” K.A.S. Murshid, immediate past director general of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, said.
“But this time we saw more inflow of remittances, as non-resident Bangladeshis continued to send more money owing to the Coronavirus crisis back in home,” he said.
“Expatriate Bangladeshis are probably thinking that they are not safe enough in the countries or regions where they are now staying due to the pandemic. So they prefer to send home every penny of their hard earned money to family members in Bangladesh instead of keeping with them on foreign lands,” he added.
Apart from this, he said the 2-per cent incentive on remittances announced by the government also contributed immensely to boost inflow of remittances through formal channels to help the country maintain macroeconomic stability despite the pandemic.
The country’s Directorate General of Health Services reported 1,988 new cases of COVID-19 and 34 new deaths on Wednesday, bringing the number of total cases to 804,2936 and the death toll to 12,694.
