DHAKA: Money sent home by Bangladeshis working overseas in May rose 8.5 percent from a year earlier to nearly $1.32 billion, the central bank said.
In July-May, the first 11 months of the 2014-15 financial year, Bangladesh received about $13.87 billion in remittances, up 7.2 percent from the same period of the previous year.
Remittances from its millions of citizens abroad are critical for the South Asian nation of 160 million people.
The inflows are a key source of foreign exchange, alongside garment exports, which account for 80 percent of total export earnings of about $30 billion a year.
Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves edged down to $23.71 billion at the end of May from a record high of $24.07 billion in the previous month, but were up 17 percent from a year earlier.
Bangladesh received $14.23 billion in remittances from citizens working overseas in the 2013/14 fiscal year that ended in June, down 1.6 percent from a year earlier.
Total inflows were worth $14.46 billion in the previous fiscal year.
A majority of Bangladesh expatriates are employed in Middle Eastern countries and almost 60 percent of the remittances come from there.
