The country’s remittance inflow posted a 27 per cent jump in the first eight months of the current fiscal year compared to that in the corresponding period in FY200506 with expatriate Bangladeshis sending home $3.81 billion, according to Bangladesh Bank statistics. Illegal transfer of money has gone down drastically as the central bank has stepped up monitoring of such transactions at home. Bangladesh has made over 600 arrangements in different countries to help expatriate Bangladeshis send money to the country which has boosted the remittance inflow.

According to provisional figure, remittance inflow in February was $490 million which is $66 million more than the money sent in the same month of the last fiscal. The highest portion of the remittance, $1.02 billion, came from Saudi Arabia in the July-January period with the total remittance inflow from the Middle East increasing to $2.09 billion. The second highest part of the remittance amounting to $512 million came from the United Kingdom followed by a $492 million inflow from the United States. The other significant amounts of remittance included $411 million from the United Arab Emirates, $373 million from Kuwait, $130 million from Qatar, $113 million from Oman and $74 million from Italy. The country earned $4.8 billion in remittances in the last fiscal year which was up 25 per cent on the figure in the previous fiscal.

If the present trend continues, the remittance inflow will cross $5.5 billion in the current fiscal. On the back of huge remittance inflow the country experienced a positive balance of payment of $347 million in July-December period. The positive current account balance stood at $579 million in the period although trade balance and service balance were negative with $1,260 million and $770 million respectively.

The country’s foreign exchange reserves decreased to $3.8 billion last week from a peak of over $4.10 billion as the central bank made a payment of $378 million to Asian Clearing Union. The central banks and monetary authorities of Iran, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar are the members of the ACU. The member countries make payments to the ACU every two months.