Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Wednesday hoped that the inward remittance flow, which witnessed a downtrend in recent months, would come to a normal trend in the coming days as it would increase gradually.
“It’s true that inward remittance flow during this July-September period was less compared to the same period of last year. But, we hope that it will come to a normal trend gradually and will increase further,” he said.
The Finance Minister said this while replying to a question after chairing two separate meetings on the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) and the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP).
He said the country witnessed a robust inward remittance flow of around US$25 billion last year adding: “Assessing the current pace of inward remittance flow, then we can see that it will reach not below US$22 billion in this year and is likely to reach US$23 billion.”
Citing a reason for fall in remittance flow, the Finance Minister said that all of the expatriate Bangladeshis who have returned home during the pandemic could not go abroad fully and they are now going gradually.
“I don’t see any other reason except this…Remittance basically come from the expatriates, they are now going abroad and hopefully the situation will come to a normalcy within the next three months,” he added.
Kamal told another questioner that there is no apprehension regarding inward remittance inflow as everything is still normal.
Bangladeshi expatriates sent home US$1.73 billion in September this year compared to US$2.15 billion in September 2020.
Read more: Remittance dropped by 19pc in 1st quarter
The amount remitted in September this year was 4.63 percent lower than the August earnings.
From July to September of the current fiscal year (FY22), the total remittance inflow was US$5.40 billion, down from US$6.71 billion sent home during the same period of last fiscal year (FY21).
