Bangladesh's remittance grows 23 percent in seven months

Bangladesh's remittance inflow saw a sharp 23 percent boost, fetching 2.57 billion U.S. dollars during July-January period of the current financial year (July 2005-June 2006), The Daily Star reported on Tuesday.

According to the daily, non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) sent 390 million dollars in January and 413.63 million dollars in December, which was an all time high in a single month. In the first seven months of the last fiscal year the amount was about 2. 09 billion dollars.

As the central bank continues its efforts to encourage NRBs to send their money through banking channels, remittance inflow has so far been able to see a strong growth.

Private commercial banks have also become more aggressive in remittance business offering quick and reliable services and attracting Bangladeshis abroad to send their money through legal channels.

Remittance has also become a good source of income of some foreign banks with strong network in Bangladesh.

Remittance inflow was 3.85 billion dollars in the last financial year. NRBs send over 7 billion dollars a year and a significant portion of the total amount still comes through hundi, an illegal way of money transfer, the daily said.

Bankers observed that there are further scopes to increase remittance through banking channels.

"Some of the private banks are taking services of the globally renowned money transfer companies that have networks around the world and have extended their services to rural Bangladesh," a top executive of a private bank was quoted as saying. "As a result, remittance has become a major source of their incomes."

Source: Xinhua