Bangladeshi expatriates sent $5.46 billion in the last 11 months of the current fiscal year, marking about 25 per cent rise in the remittance inflow, Bangladesh Bank statistics said. Some 4.5 million Bangladeshi wage earners sent about $1 billion more than the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year. According to the statistics, the Bangladeshi expatriates had sent $4.37 billion from July to May of 2005-06 while the total remittance of the fiscal year stood at $4.8 billion.

The robust remittance pushed the foreign exchange reserve to a comfortable $4.48 billion level on June 6 which is considered as 3-month import payment, BB sources said. The major portion of the remittances came from Saudi Arabia, the USA, UK, UAE and Kuwait which amounted to $4.13 billion or 76 per cent of the total remittance. Up to April last, remittance from Saudi Arabia stood at $1,462 million, followed by $746 million from the USA, $737 million from the UK, $637 million from the UAE and $554 million from Kuwait.

More money came from the other countries where blue collar workers were concentrated. The remittances from Middle East and adjacent countries stood at about $3.07 billion up to April this year. The recent trend is that a large portion of remittances also comes from the USA and the UK mainly because of high exchange rate.

The central bank has so far provided licences to 635 exchange houses that play a key role in sending money home from abroad. The local banks now take a maximum of 72 hours to deliver money to recipients, he pointed out.