Bangladesh's remittance income crossed $2bn in January

Bangladesh Bank gave good news on expatriate income: remittance inflow to the country reached the $2 billion mark in January, the first time since June last year.

The updated report released on Thursday showed that expatriates sent remittances of $2.01 billion in January. It was $1.99 billion in December and $1.96 billion in January last year.

Central bank officials say this rise is a result of the initiative to bring remittances through legal channels. Along with this, the additional incentives are encouraging expatriate Bangladeshis. They hope that more remittances will come through legal channels in the future since many expatriates are now avoiding the hundi networks.

Moreover, although the announced price of purchase is Tk109.50, remittance is being bought at a rate of up to Tk122.

As a single month, remittances in January were the highest in the last seven months.

In 2023, a record of more than 1.3 million workers went abroad, but remittances in the banking channel reached $2.19 billion, which is only $630 million, or 2.88% more than the previous year.

Despite the increase in remittances, foreign reserves have fallen below $20 billion. At the end of Thursday, the reserves stood at $19.94 billion.

Experts say Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves have been depleting over the last few months, with the central bank selling dollars every day to meet import demand.

As a common practice, a country should have reserves equal to the minimum of three months’ import costs. Bangladesh is now at the bottom of that standard.