Bangladesh drops in remittance ranking

Although Bangladesh continues to be among the top 10 remittance receiving countries, this year, the country has slid one notch down from last year.
Bangladesh came in eighth in the most recent edition of World Bank's migration and development brief, released on Wednesday.
India came on top this year, with China coming in second.
Last year, Nigeria occupied the eighth position, sitting just below Bangladesh, but this year it has leapfrogged Bangladesh -- and also Egypt and Pakistan -- to the fifth spot.
The report predicts that Bangladesh will receive $14 billion remittance for the whole year, whereas the projection last year was $12 billion.
In the first 10 months of this year, the remittance inflow was $11.79 billion, with the monthly average being $1 billion.
But the Bangladesh Bank (BB) is hopeful that the remittance receipts this year will surpass the WB projection, said an official preferring not to be named.
The official added that the country's receipts could be higher if Bangladesh can increase its skilled manpower exports.
The WB report said the officially recorded remittance flows to developing countries are estimated to reach $406 billion in 2012, a 6.5 percent rise from the previous year.
The flows are expected to rise by 8 percent in 2013 and 10 percent in 2014 -- to reach $534 billion in 2015.
The report found the remittance costs -- of about 9 percent -- to be still too high.
The WB report said the exponential rise in mobile phone usage promises much for remittance flow, by way of expanding access and lowering costs.
The central bank has also taken the initiative to introduce mobile banking in all commercial banks, with half of the banks having already introduced the service and the rest due in by the end of this year.