Remittance on the decline

Remittance's slide continues for the third straight month, after the month of October saw receipts decline 8.18 percent year-on-year to $1.01 billion.

Migrant workers sent home $4.26 billion in the first four months of the fiscal year, down 17.31 percent year-on-year. 

The decline in oil price, which dropped to its historic low in January this year from its historic high in the middle of 2014, affected incomes in the Gulf Cooperation Council economies, weakening the demand for migrant workers.

The bonus and overtime payment have decreased. Their per capita income has gone down while their living cost has gone up, which has cut into their savings, said Zahid Hussain, lead economist of the World Bank's Dhaka office, last month.

The declining remittance comes despite a significant increase in the number of Bangladeshi workers abroad, said the World Bank Bangladesh Development Update report.

The number of workers going abroad reached 6.8 lakh in fiscal 2015-16, up 48 percent year-on-year.

About 71.3 percent of the migrant workers went to the GCC countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The six countries are among the top 11 remitters to Bangladesh so far in the current fiscal year. They were also among the top 10 countries in the last fiscal year, according to Bangladesh Bank. 

In fiscal 2015-16, remittance fell 2.54 percent year-on-year to $14.93 billion, despite a significant rise in migrant outflow in the previous two fiscal years.

Remittance sent by migrant workers plays a crucial role in the country's economy, helping reduce the overall incidence of poverty as well as maintaining a healthy balance of payments.