$455m Remittance Inwards Five Days Before Eid-ul-Fitr

Expatriate Bangladeshis have sent $455.42 million in remittances in the last five days (1-5 April) before Eid-ul-Fitr. The Bangladesh Bank stated the information regarding the issue.

Bankers said $400-500 million in remittances came in every week last March.

Ot is reported that the increase was attributed while expatriate Bangladeshis sending money to their relatives on the occasion of Eid.

After two consecutive months of rising remittance, it fell below the $2 billion mark in March amid the weakening of the dollar against the Taka.

Data revealed from the Bangladesh Bank shows expatriate Bangladeshis sent home $1.99 billion last month, down from $2.16 billion in February and $2.11 billion in January.

This decrease was unexpected, especially during Eid celebrations, according to Bangladesh Bank data. The decline is mainly due to the increased use of the hundi system, an illegal method offering better exchange rates for US dollar transfers than official channels.

The central bank, in its quarterly report (July-September), identified the informal hundi channel as one of the major factors contributing to the recent fall in the country's remittance inflows.

Despite the rise in migrant workers' numbers in Gulf and Middle-East countries, the amount of remittance inflows decreased in the first quarter of the current FY24 due to active informal channels/hundi, the central bank's quarterly report stated.