Remittance flows over $30 billion in FY25

Remittance inflows crossed the $30 billion mark on Saturday, two days before the fiscal year is due to end, making it the highest receipts yet in Bangladesh's history.

In the first 28 days of this month, the country received $2.53 billion in remittance, up 7 percent year-on-year, according to data from the Bangladesh Bank.

The trend indicates the remittance receipts in fiscal 2024-25 would hit a historic high. As of June 28, $30.4 billion was received in remittance in fiscal 2024-25.

Before this, Bangladesh received the highest volume of remittance in fiscal 2020-21: $24.8 billion.

The surge in money sent home by Bangladeshi expatriates is being credited to a cocktail of factors, such as a narrowing gap between official and informal exchange rates, a clampdown on money laundering and renewed sense of patriotism among Bangladeshis living abroad after the political changeover in August last year.

This has lifted the country's gross foreign exchange reserves to $26.32 billion, this highest since October 2022.

Forex reserves were propped up by the release of $1.34 billion as third and fourth instalments of the International Monetary Fund's loan programme and budget support from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other development partners, said a BB official.

The reserves are sufficient to meet four-and-a-half months' import bills.