Home ›› 12 Jan 2022 ›› Front
Foreign currency transactions by card returned to the pre-pandemic level, hitting 21-month high in October last year as overseas travel resumed following the gradual decline of Covid-19 cases across the globe.
Latest data from the Bangladesh Bank shows that card-based foreign currency transactions stood at Tk231 crore in October 2021, up from at Tk184.6 crore in the previous month. October’s total card transactions are the highest after Tk251.4 crore recorded in January 2020.
According to bankers, people mostly use foreign currency from debit and credit cards during their travels abroad. Travellers use card-based foreign currency mostly for paying plane fares, travel costs, hotel bookings and shopping.
They added that such foreign currency transactions rebounded strongly as the Covid-19 infections were on the decline, until it began to rebound in late December 2021.
The use of foreign currency from cards dropped sharply after the Covid-19 struck. Immediately after the novel coronavirus outbreak, foreign currency spending through cards dropped to Tk 40 crore in April 2020 from Tk 269.8 crore four months ago.
Border closures of major foreign travel destinations were the reason behind this drastic fall, insiders said, adding that apart from the restrictions, people were scared of traveling abroad due to risks of getting infected by the deadly virus.
From March 2020, Bangladesh’s card-based foreign currency transactions remained below Tk 100 crore for seven months. In November 2020, the transactions returned above Tk100 crore. From November 2020 till September 2021, the figure hovered between Tk100 and Tk 200 crore.
