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.
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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.
