Remittance inflow drops 3.56% in 2022

Remittance inflow into the country has declined by 3.56 per cent or around $786 million to $21.28 billion in 2022 from $22.070 billion in the previous year (2021).

As per the data available with the Bangladesh Bank, remittance inflow increased by $104.52 million to $1.7 billion in December, up by 6.55 per cent compared to the previous month. Remitters sent $ 1.6 billion in November.

And year-on-year, remittance rose by $69.03 million to $1.7 billion in December, 2022 from $1.63 billion in December, 2021.

Experts said that the data cannot depict the real scenario all the times. Though the figure shows the less, the workers sent more money than we are seeing on the surface, they added.

Professor Tasneem Siddiqui, founding chair of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), told The Business Post, “Households are going through a tough time due to economic crisis. Usually, in such situation migrant workers sent more money to their families to overcome the crisis.”

It has not been reflected in the central bank’s data, but it does not mean that they remitted less than the previous year, he said, adding that remittance which came through informal channel has not been included in the data.

“Two issues played an important role and discourage sending remittance through proper channel. Firstly, people lost trust on the banking system observing the situation of Islami Bank in news media. This bank brings a major portion of remittance to the country. People are not only avoiding banks to send remittance, but also withdrawing their savings from the banks.”

“And secondly, there is a huge gap in dollar price between the banks and kerb market. Even 2.5 per cent incentives failed to bring the workers in banking channel because a difference of dollar price is Tk 7-8 between the banks and kerb market,” he said.

“We proposed 5 per cent incentives which could have put impact. We are calling for increasing the percentage of incentives. On the other hand, strong publicity is needed to make them understand that their remittance and savings are safe in the banks,” he added.

After gradual rise in four years, remittance fell in 2022. Country received remittances of $15.54 billion in 2018 while $18.35 billion in 2019, $21.75 billion in 2020 and $22.07 billion in 2021.