Bangladesh's remittance inflow maintained its strong trend, growing by around 22 percent during July-April period of the 2005-06 financial year, The Daily Star reported Monday.

Non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) sent home 3.89 billion U.S. dollars in the first 10 months of the current financial year (July 2005-June 2006) while the amount was 3.19 billion dollars during the same period of last fiscal year, according to statistics of Bangladesh Bank (BB), the central bank.

Remittance inflow has been showing an upward trend since December, which was on an average around 426 million dollars a month.

"Recent devaluation of taka against U.S. dollar has encouraged the Bangladeshi wage earners abroad to send more money home," said a central bank official, hoping that the trend would continue in the coming months.

The BB eyes a record remittance inflow to go beyond 4.5 billion dollars at the end of this fiscal, which was 3.85 billion dollars in the last financial year.

The central bank also continues its efforts to encourage NRBs to send their money through official channels. And remittance has become a good source of income for some of the banks having strong network abroad.

Bangladeshi wage earners send over 7 billion dollars annually and a substantial portion of the total amount still comes through hundi, an illegal way of transferring money, according to bankers.

The bankers hope there is still a good chance to see further rise in remittance inflow through official channels.

The private commercial banks have become more aggressive in remittance business by providing quick and reliable services and encouraging Bangladeshi wage earners to send money home through banking channel.

Source: Xinhua