DHAKA, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Millions of Bangladeshis remitted home 1.56 billion U.S. dollars in July, the first month of the current 2019-20 fiscal year (July 2019-June 2020), a central bank official said Monday.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) official who declined to be unnamed told Xinhua that "the flow of inward remittances surged 43.21 percent year-on-year to 1,597.66 million U.S. dollars in the last month."
The inflow of remittances rose sharply as non-resident Bangladeshis are sending home more money for their relatives to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha, one of the largest Muslim festivals, which is to be held in Bangladesh on Aug. 12.
Remittances mainly came from Middle Eastern countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, among others.
Bangladesh remittances hit an all-time high of 16.40 billion U.S. dollars in the immediate past 2018-2019 fiscal year (July 2018-June 2019).
Officials said the increase in total inflow of remittance in the 2018-2019 fiscal year were mainly due to boom in overseas employment in Middle East countries and devaluation of Bangladeshi currencies against the U.S. dollar.
The inflow remittances from some 10 million Bangladeshis, living and working in over 100 countries and regions in the past 2017-2018 financial year amounted to 14.98 billion dollars.
