DHAKA, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Bangladeshi people living and working abroad in the first eight months of the current 2020-21 fiscal year (July 2020-June 2021) remitted home 16.69 billion U.S. dollars, over 33 percent higher than a year earlier, the country's central bank data showed Wednesday.
According to the Bangladesh Bank (BB) statistics, the remittance in February alone stood at 1.78 billion U.S. dollars.
This amount is up by over 22 percent from 1.45 billion U.S. dollars received in the same month of the 2019-20 fiscal year.
The inflow remittance is one of the key sources of foreign exchange for Bangladesh and most of the remittances come from the Gulf countries.
In the first eight months of the last 2019-20 fiscal year (July 2019-June 2020), Bangladesh received 12.50 billion U.S. dollars remittance, according to BB statistics.
Bangladesh's remittances hit an all-time high of 18.20 billion U.S. dollars in the last 2019-20 fiscal year.
Officials said remittance has been steadily rising since the announcement of a 2.0-percent incentive on remittance receipts in June 2019 to encourage the expatriate Bangladeshis to send home more money through formal channels.
Bangladeshi Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal had earlier said the government is giving a 2-percent cash incentive on money remitted by expatriate Bangladeshis to remove the burden of increased expenses in sending remittances and to encourage bringing in remittance through legal channels. Enditem
