February 22, 2023
DHAKA – For the second consecutive quarter, the United States of America (USA) has become the biggest source of remittance for Bangladesh leaving behind the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to the second position, although the Middle Eastern nation hired a number workers during the period.
Bangladeshis in the North American country sent home $966.89 million in the October-December period of 2022, up nearly 16 per cent from $834 million a year ago.
As such, remittances coming from the USA was 20.06 per cent of total remittances inflow of $4.82 billion in the October-December period of last year, according to quarterly report on remittance inflows in Bangladesh released by the central bank yesterday.
By contrast, migrants sent lower remittance from the KSA in the second quarter of the fiscal year (FY) 2022-23 from a year ago.
Migrants from Saudi Arabia sent home $910 million in October-December period of the FY23, which was 19.5 per cent lower from the same quarter a year ago, according to the Bangladesh Bank report.
The central bank report showed that overall remittance inflow declined 0.22 per cent year-on-year to $4.82 billion in the October-December period.
Inflow of remittance, one of the key pillars of Bangladesh economy, fell 15 per cent on quarter to quarter basis too as migrants send lower amount of money.
“Amid the global price hike that adversely affected migrants’ real income and their remittances,” said the Bangladesh Bank report.
It said United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom were the third and fourth biggest source of remittance for Bangladesh during October-December quarter followed by Kuwait, Qatar, Malaysia and Oman.
The BB report said the KSA was the biggest destination of workers during the quarter as the Middle Eastern country hired 98,765 Bangladeshi workers which was 37.8 per cent of total workers of 261,134 who left the country for jobs.
Malaysia, Oman, the UAE and Singapore were top employing countries of Bangladeshi migrant workers in the quarter.
Of the banks, Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd received the largest amount of remittances at $1.25 billion, which was 25.86 percent of the total remittances inflow during the quarter.
State-run Agrani Bank and privately-owned Dutch-Bangla Bank were second and third largest recipients of remittance during October-December period, according to the report.