$21.61 billion remittances in FY23, second highest ever

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Bangladesh received inward remittances of USD $21.61 billion in the fiscal year 2022-23 through official channels, which is the second-highest ever.

The country received a record amount of remittances $24.77 billion in the fiscal year 2020-21, when travel was banned due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Bangladesh Bank (BB) revealed the updated statistics on Sunday (July 2).

Different research organizations including CPD think that a big volume of inward remittances also came through illegal channel like Hundi.

In June 2023, the last month of the outgoing fiscal year, the expatriates sent $2.19 billion in remittances during the time of the biggest festival of Eid-UL-Azha. Buoyed by this the inward remittances collection stood at $21.61 billion in FY23, which was $21.03 billion in FY22.

This is the highest expatriate income in a single month in nearly three years. Earlier, the highest expatriate income was $2.59 billion in July of FY21.

Those concerned with the sector say that due to various reasons including the dollar crisis, the government took various initiatives to bring more remittances or expatriate income through legal channels.

However, remittances did not increase at the rate expected by the central bank, or proved rather inconsistent. (UNB)