Bangladeshi expatriates have sent home $1.45 billion in remittances in February, up by 10.25% from the same month of last year.
Remittance inflow increased by 20.06% to $12.49 billion in July-February period of the current fiscal year, compared to the same period of last fiscal year, according to the latest data of Bangladesh Bank released on Sunday.
Bankers said favorable exchange rate of Taka against the US dollar and a strong stance taken by the central bank to fight illegal money transfers positively impacted the trend of remittance.
On Sunday, the inter-bank exchange rate stood at Tk84.95, up from Tk84.15 a year earlier, according to the central bank data.
The central bank attributed the sharp rise in remittance to the government’s 2% cash incentive introduced in the current fiscal year.
“The flow of remittance into the country has shown an upward trend in the current fiscal year as the government introduced two percent cash incentive against remitted amount to encourage legal channel for encouraging non-resident Bangladeshis,” said the central bank’s spokesperson Md Serajul Islam.
He said the recent flow of remittance indicated that it was gradually increasing and this trend was likely to continue in the upcoming months.
In the current budget, the government offered a 2% incentive on money remitted through banks by Bangladeshi diasporas.