Remittances: First 6 months of fiscal sees over 37 percent growth

Inward remittances witnessed a massive growth of 37.6 percent in the first six months of the current fiscal 2020-21, over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

According to the numbers from the Finance Ministry, Bangladesh received nearly $13 billion in remittances during the July to December period of the current fiscal, which is also the highest ever recorded for the period.

In 2019-20, the remittance figure for July - December was under $9.5 billion.

“The remittance stood at $12,944.74 million in July-December period of FY21, compared to $9,407.93 million during the previous corresponding period," the Finance Ministry's records said.

The number for December 2020 was around $2.05 billion ($2,050.64mn), compared to $1.7 billion ($1,691.68mn) in 2019.

The pronounced increase in remittances witnessed during the Coronavirus pandemic has been attributed to the dramatic fall in opportunities for hundi and other unofficial, grey area-channels to transfer money due to lockdown measures imposed by governments worldwide, as well as a incentives provided by the government to encourage use of official channels.