Remittance hits $1.81 billion in 16 days, reserves rise to $34.53 billion

In the first 16 days of the current February, 1.807 billion US dollars worth of remittances came into the country, which is about 21 percent more than the same period last year. Due to the impact of this continuous increase in expatriate income, foreign exchange reserves have also increased.

According to the latest data released by Bangladesh Bank on Tuesday, the total remittances received from February 1 to 16 were $1.807 billion. Of this, $152 million came on February 16 alone. Last year, expatriate income was $1.49 billion during the same period.

As a result of the increase in expatriate income, the central bank is buying dollars from commercial banks. This has increased the country's total foreign exchange reserves to $34.53 billion. According to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) BPM6 method, the amount of reserves is $29.85 billion. Earlier, on February 7, the reserve was $34.06 billion, which was $29.47 billion as of BPM6.

This month, expatriates have sent an average of about $112.5 million in remittances per day. In view of the elections, there has been an increase in the flow of expatriate income for the last two months. In January this year, $31.7 billion in remittances came into the country and $32.2 billion in December.

Earlier, expatriate income was below $3 billion for five consecutive months. Concerned bank officials said that remittance flow usually increases before the two Eids. However, in recent times, expatriate income has also increased around the elections. The highest remittances come from countries with a large expatriate population. According to relevant sources, a part of the election-focused fund collection is also coming into the country through expatriate income.