Bangladesh’s remittances in the just-concluded financial year (2013-14 ) was US$14.23 billion as against US$14.46 billion a year ago (2012-13), marking a fall by 1.6 per cent, the first time in 13 years, according to the statistics released by Bangladesh Bank.
The flow of inward remittances, except from the USA and Malaysia, was showing a declining trend mainly due to a fall in earnings from traditional Bangladesh market-Middle Eastern countries. Remittances from Saudi Arabia, which was the biggest market for Bangladeshi workers for years, fell by 18.55 per cent year-on-year to US$3.12 billion in 2013-14.
The remittance from USA has rose 25 per cent year-on-year to U$2.32 billion in fiscal 2013-14 while it was 6.74 per cent from Malaysia year-on-year to US$1.06 billion. Former Governor of Bangladesh Bank Dr Salehuddin Ahmed said the fall of inward remittance flow was not a good sign for Bangladesh economy. He said this, while talking to The New Nation on Thursday evening, analyzing the reasons behind the fall. Other than Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, remittances were US$2.86 billion from the United Arab Emirates, down by more than US$144 million or 5.1 percent than a year ago. Remittances also declined by US$80 million from Kuwait, another major destination for Bangladeshi workers. Of the top-performing markets except the US, earnings from Malaysia grew 6.74 per cent year-on-year to US$1.06 billion.
The situation has not improved so far as Saudi Arabia and the UAE have not been recruiting Bangladeshi workers for more than two years. Kuwait has almost stopped employing workers from Bangladesh long ago. Overall remittances from eight Middle East countries stood at $8.4 billion in 2013-14, down from $9.16 billion in the previous year, while the combined inflow from other countries increased to $5.82 billion from $5.29 billion a year ago.
“The poor outflow of manpower to the traditional destinations, such as Saudi Arabia and Middle Eastern countries is the main reason of the decline in remittances,” Dr Salehuddin said, adding, ” Lack of proper and timely initiatives, inability to supply adequate number of machine readable passports (MRPs) in time and lack of coordination between the government agencies and private recruiting agencies have contributed to negative outflow of manpower in the Middle East.”
“Besides, the additional spending by 700,000 Bangladeshis to legalise their stay in Saudi Arabia might have led to the fall in remittance inflow from the country,” he said. Another reason for remittance fall is artificial overvalue of Taka, which sometimes discourages expatriate workers from sending money to the country. India has recently devalued its rupee again only to revamp exports and lure expatriate Indians to send more money home,” he said.
Dr Salehuddin urged all concerned to immediately take corrective measures so that the declining trend of remittance could be checked quickly.
“Otherwise, the economy will suffer in the long run and generate a new social problem,” he predicted.
