Bangladesh recorded just $1.6 billion in inward remittances for the month of August, a six-month low that narrowly surpassed February's $1.56 billion. The country received $2.19 billion in remittances in June, followed by $1.97 billion in July, raising hopes of an uptick stabilising around $2 billion. But the August data arrived to shatter such misconceptions. Also read: Bangladesh received $1.97 billion remittance in July Year-on-year, inward remittance flow declined by 21.57 percent in August, from the high  of $2.03 billion in 2022-23, and $1.81 billion in 2021-22. The sector insiders and observers could only point to increased hundi i.e. sending or receiving money via careers or other irregular channels, as a cause for the decline. Normally hundi increases when the dollar price gap widens in the kerb (open) market than in banking channels. Also read: $21.61 billion remittances in FY23, second highest ever “When demand for hundi increases, remittances decrease. The dollar was  fetching Tk 5-6 more in the kerb market than in banks last month. So, expatriates reduced sending remittances through legal channels to avail the higher offer in the kerb market,” they pointed out. For almost a year now, banks have been fixing the price of the dollar in terms of payment of export and expatriate income and import liabilities for the dollar crisis and market stability. Now the banks are offering Tk109.5 per dollar for expatriate income. Export bill encashment offers a price of Tk109.5 per dollar and a maximum of taka Tk110 for import and interbank transactions. Also read: US Dollar rate Tk108.5 for remittance, Tk107 for exports from Thursday

Bangladesh received inward remittances worth over USD $1008.67 million (1,000 million = 1 billion) in the first 15 days of September, amid the forex crisis in the country. Bankers said remittance inflow shows an upward trend as the remitters are encouraged by the depreciation of taka and they get more than Tk 108 per dollar. The remittance inflow is expected to cross $2 billion in September. Read: Uniform rate: Tk 108/dollar max for remittance, Tk 99/dollar for export income from tomorrow Bangladesh received remittances of $2.09 billion in July and $2.03 billion in August, which became a blessing amidst forex crisis. Md Serajul Islam, executive director and spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank told UNB that the central bank has simplified various processes to attract more remittance through banking channels. The government is also extending remittance incentives as well as providing policy support. Now the dollar rate is getting higher, he said. Read: Hope amidst forex crisis: Bangladesh received $2.03bn remittance in Aug The sector insiders said that Bangladesh’s inward remittance flow will grow more as manpower export hit a new high in the past fiscal on a post-pandemic rebound of the overseas job market. The data of the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) showed over 9.88 lakh workers had gone abroad in the fiscal year FY22 while this figure was 2.71 lakh in FY 21. This happens to be the highest number of annual overseas jobs in the last seven years. Read How to safely send remittance to Bangladesh? It is also contributing to growing up the inward remittance flow in Bangladesh.