After export, remittance stumbles

Expatriate Bangladeshis have sent home $ 1.16 billion in August, 22 percent less than they did in July.

In July, the remittance inflow was $ 1.49 billion, an all-time high.

The central bank, however, says the July boom was due to Ramadan and Eid holidays and the slump in the next month is not unusual.

The remittance in August is 13 percent more than what came in in August 2013.

In the last seven months remittance inflow has stayed over the $1.2-billion mark.

Bangladesh Bank’s Forex and Treasury Management Department head Kazi Saidur Rahman said August remittance was not so low when compared to other months.

“In July the expats sent home almost $1.5 billion,” he said.

Rahman hoped that the remittance flow would increase in September ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.

In the first two months of the new financial year, Bangladesh received a total of $2.65 billion in remittances, which is 27 percent more than the same period last year.

Although export earnings have grown by 12 percent over the last fiscal, in July it fell by 1.5 percent compared to July last year.

Reserves $22.13bn

The foreign exchange reserves have stayed above the $22 billion mark. At the end of Tuesday the reserves were $22.13 billion, which is enough to meet seven months of import bills, Rahman said.

On Aug 7, the forex reserves first crossed the $22-billion mark.

ACU’s bill $920m

Bangladesh will pay Asian Clearing Union’s bill for the months of July and August this week. The export bill for these months is $920 million.

After clearing ACU’s bill the reserves will fall below $22 billion, Saidur Rahman said.

Bangladesh clears ACU’s bills every two months. The May-June period’s bill of $97 billion was cleared in the first week of July.

Dollar demand up

For the last two weeks Bangladesh Bank has not bought dollars from the market.

Saidur Rahman said with imports going up, banks were using their dollars to open letters of credit instead of selling.

The central bank bought about $300 million from the market from July 1 to Aug 15 this year. In the last fiscal it bought a total of $5.15 billion.

On Tuesday the interbank exchange rate was Tk 77.40 per dollar.