According to the central bank, expatriate Bangladeshis sent home $14.22 billion in the 2013-14 FY, ending on June 30, against $14.46 billion in the previous FY.
However, the Bangladeshis living in the US remitted $2.32 billion, 25 percent higher than $1.86 billion sent in 2012-13 FY.
Economists and bankers have attributed the increase in remittance from the US to a recovery of the American economy from the slowdown that ran for several years.
Zaid Bakht, Research Director at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), agreed.
He told bdnews24.com that Bangladeshis in the US were comparatively well placed.
“Both income and expenditure of the expatriates in the US are high. They could not remit money for quite some time due to the slowdown. They’re now sending more money as the situation has improved,” he added.
The Centre for Policy Dialogue Executive Director Mustafizur Rahman also echoed Saidur Rahman’s view.
He said stability in Bangladesh’s foreign exchange market also contributed to increase in remittance from the US.
According to information with the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), around 8 million Bangladeshis are now staying abroad.
Most of them are labourers working in different Middle Eastern countries. The number of expatriate Bangladeshis in the US is a little over 0.1 million.