US remains top source of remittance

For the second consecutive quarter, the United States of America has been the biggest source of remittance for Bangladesh, leaving the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in second place even though the Middle Eastern nation hired the highest number of workers during the period.

Bangladeshis in the North American country sent $966.89 million in the October-December period of 2022, up nearly 16 per cent from $834 million a year ago.

As such, remittance from the USA accounted for 20.06 per cent of the total remittance inflow of $4,820 million in the October-December period of last year, according to the Quarterly Report on Remittance Inflows in Bangladesh released by the central bank yesterday.

However, migrants sent a lower amount of remittance in the second quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2022-23 compared to the same period a year ago.

Migrants sent home $910 million in the October-December period of FY23, down 19.5 per cent from the same quarter a year ago, according to the Bangladesh Bank report.

The central bank report showed that overall remittance inflow declined 0.22 per cent year-on-year to $4,820 million in the October-December period from a year ago.

The inflow of remittance, one of the key pillars of Bangladesh's economy, also fell 15 per cent on a quarter-to-quarter basis as migrants sent home a lower amount of money.

"Amid the global price hike that adversely affected migrants' real income, their remittance fell as well," the report said.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and United Kingdom were the third and fourth biggest sources of remittance for Bangladesh during the October-December quarter followed by Kuwait, Qatar, Malaysia and Oman.

The Bangladesh Bank report said the KSA was the biggest destination for workers during the quarter as the Middle Eastern country hired 98,765 Bangladeshis, which was 37.8 per cent of the roughly 261,134 workers who left the country for jobs.

Malaysia, Oman, the UAE and Singapore were the other top employing countries of Bangladeshi migrant workers during the quarter.

Islami Bank Bangladesh received the largest amount of remittance with $1,246 million, which was 25.86 per cent of the total remittance inflow during the quarter.

The state-run Agrani Bank and private Dutch Bangla Bank were the second and third largest recipients of remittance during October-December period, according to the report.