Bangladeshi nationals working abroad remitted home $2,861 million in the first half of the current fiscal year, which is 31 per cent more than the $2,178 million remittance the country received in the corresponding half of FY200506, reveals the Bangladesh Bank statistics. The highest amount of $889 million or 31 per cent of the total remittance during the reporting period came from Saudi Arabia.

On an average, we received $476.86 million a month during the first half of this fiscal. Of the six months since July, November saw the highest remittance inflow, which is $598 million. In FY06 Bangladesh received $4.8 billion remittance from its nationals abroad and if the present trend continues the remittance in the current fiscal year will exceed $5 billion for the first time in the country’s history. In the first half of FY07, $1,799 million was remitted from the Middle East. Of the non-Middle East countries, the highest amount, $439 million, came from the United Kingdom.