Bangladesh received $784.47 million in remittances from expatriate workers in February, up 13.8 percent from a year earlier but down from a record high of $859 million in January, central bank data showed on Monday. The latest available figure pushed up remittances to around $6.15 billion for July-February, the first eight months of the 2008/09 fiscal year, up 27 percent from the same period in 2007/08.
Analysts fear the inflow of remittances could slow down as the global credit crisis and recession in the developed world put jobs at risk. Bangladesh's overseas employment fell in the past two months due to declining demand in major labour markets, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Malaysia. "So far, there has been no serious impact on our inflows of remittances but the risk of remittances losing momentum cannot be ruled out," said Mustafa K. Mujeri, chief economist at the central bank.
Millions of Bangladeshis are dependant on money sent by relatives working overseas, mainly in the Middle East, Europe and the United States, which is also a key plank of the economy. "A decline in the number of Bangladeshis leaving for overseas employment may slow down the growth of remittances in the future," Mujeri said. The expat incomes, a key source of foreign exchange for the impoverished south Asian country, hit $7.91 billion in the 2007/08 financial year, nearly a third higher than the previous fiscal year.
Comments
Comments are closed.