Inward remittance record high in 2019

Remittance inflow has reached a new height of $18.35 billion, a record in a calendar year, according to data provided by the Bangladesh Bank.

The amount is 17.89 percent higher than the $15.54 billion inward remittance of 2018.

Expatriates have been enjoying 2 percent incentives on remittance since the third quarter of 2019 and the government allocated Tk3,060 crore to meet the expenses of the incentive.

"The initiative of incentive on remittance and the recent appreciation of the dollar played a key role in boosting remittance," Kazi Sayedur Rahman, executive director of the Bangladesh Bank, told The Business Standard.

At present, the price of the greenback is the highest ever in the country's interbank forex market at Tk84.90. According to the central bank, in December 2019 almost $1,687 million was remitted into the country.

This is the second-highest record of monthly remittance after May 2018, when a total of $1,748 million was sent in remittance in Bangladesh.

The dollar has appreciated by Tk6 in the last three years. In 2016, a greenback was Tk78.70.

Recently, many migrant workers, especially female overseas employees, have returned from abroad, causing a significant fall in overseas employment in the last two years.

However, 2019 saw an increasing trend in overseas employment, which helped boost remittance, bankers said, adding that various steps of the central bank to prevent Hundi also helped increase remittance through banking channels.