Remittances sent by expatriates continue to increase during the country’s economic crisis. Remittances are increasing even after the fast-breaking Eid, which has never been seen before. Economists and bankers believe that the increase in the price of the dollar against the rupee has boosted remittances.

Bangladesh Bank published the weekly remittance data last Sunday, it can be seen that expatriates sent 135 crore 87 lakh 20 thousand dollars through banking channel on 17th of May.

According to the current exchange rate (Tk 117 per dollar), this amount is Tk 28 thousand 988 crore. 8 million dollars or 936 million rupees as a daily average.
At this rate for the remaining 14 days of the month (May 18 to 31), the remittance amount at the end of the month will reach about 250 crore (two and a half billion) dollars, which will be the second highest remittance in a single month. Earlier, in July 2021, the country received the highest ever remittance of 2598.2 million (2.6 billion) dollars.

In April, the month of Eid, expatriates sent 204 crore 360 ​​thousand (2.04 billion) dollars to the country. The daily average came in at $6.81 million.

In the current global context, the most discussed and worrying indicator of the country’s economy is the foreign exchange reserves. And one of the main sources of this index is remittances. In the last few months, the remittance flow has seen a good pace.

Many thought that remittances will be less after Eid like every other time; But instead of that, more is coming. From last Thursday (May 9), Bangladesh Bank introduced the new system of Taka-Dollar exchange rate ‘Crawling Peg’. In this manner, from now on the dollar rate within the country will not be able to jump, it will only be able to crawl. And that creep should be within a certain limit. Can’t go beyond the limit. Currently that limit is 117 Tk. The price of the dollar increased by 7 rupees. That is, banks can now collect remittances at the rate of 117 taka. Two and a half percent incentives given by the government will be added to this.

The introduction of the ‘crawling peg’ is expected to further increase remittance flows as the dollar appreciates. Apart from this, there is hope to increase remittances in view of Eid al-Adha. Eid-ul-Fitr was celebrated in the country on April 11. Eid-ul-Azha or the Eid of Sacrifice will be celebrated in the middle of May. The officials of the central bank are expecting that the remittance flow will increase in view of Eid.

199.68 crore (1.99 billion) was sent by expatriates last March, which was the lowest in three months. In the previous two months (January and February), more than $2 billion in remittances came into the country. 2.11 billion dollars came in January. More came in February, at $2.16 billion.

In the last month of December last year, expatriates sent remittances of about 2 billion (2 billion) dollars. In the previous two months, October and November, good remittances came to the country. 197 crore 75 lakh (1.98 billion) dollars came in October. 193 crore (1.93 billion) dollars came in November.

According to the data of Bangladesh Bank, in the first ten months (July-April) of the current fiscal year (2023-24), expatriates sent 19.11 billion dollars, which is 7.89 percent more than the same period of the last fiscal year. In these 10 months of the last fiscal year, expatriates sent 17.71 billion dollars.

In the fiscal year 2022-23, remittances of 21.61 billion dollars came into the country, which was 2.75 percent more than the previous fiscal year (2021-22). Remittance flows increase every two Eids; Less comes after Eid; But this time the expatriate income did not increase before Eid. Of course, more are coming after Eid.