Expatriates sent home USD$2.64 billion remittance in December, the highest single-month inflow in the country’s history, supported by measures to stop illegal channels.
The receipt is $648 million more than the $1.99 billion remittance inflow recorded in December 2023. Apart from July 2024, remittance inflows exceeded $2 billion in all other months of the year.
Previously, the highest single-month remittance was $2.6 billion in July 2020. During that time the demand for informal money transfer systems like “hundi” decreased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to an increase in remittances through banking channels.
On an annual basis, the highest remittance inflow was recorded in 2024. Last year, $26.89 billion was received, compared to $21.92 billion the year before.
This represents an increase of $4.97 billion or 22.69%. No recent year has seen such a surge in remittance inflows.
In 2023, remittance flows exceeded $2 billion in only two months (March and June) in contrast to 2024’s 11 months.
Expatriate Bangladeshis sent $13.77 billion in remittances during the first half of the fiscal year 2024-25 (July–December). This represents an increase of $2.97 billion compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year when $10.80 billion was received.
Experts attribute this growth to several factors, including stricter measures by the central bank to curb money laundering following a change in government, which reduced reliance on “hundi” and encouraged the use of formal banking channels. Additionally, export growth was 12% until November.
According to data from the Bangladesh Bank, foreign exchange reserves are rising rapidly. With an addition of $500 million from an Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan, reserves stood at $21.33 billion on December 29, up from $20.17 billion the previous Sunday.
Earlier, after paying $1.5 billion to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) for the September-October period, reserves had dropped to $18.46 billion in mid November. In just over a month, reserves increased by $2.87 billion. Officials have indicated that another $1 billion from the World Bank will soon be added to the reserves.
