Mar 20, 2009
Source: Yahoo.com
Remittances Fall In Bangladesh From U.S., EU in February
Siddique Islam - AHN Correspondent
Dhaka, Bangladesh (AHN) - The flow of inward remittances declined slightly from European Union (EU) and the United States (US) in February following the ongoing economic recession, officials said.
Bangladesh received a total of US$ 128.30 million as remittances from the US in February over that of $143.27 million of the previous month of this calendar year, according to the central bank statistics, released on Thursday.
The inflow of remittance from the United Kingdom decreased to $54.72 million in February from $67.54 million in January while the flow of remittance from Italy came down to $11.81 million from $16.20 million.
"The inward remittance flow fell marginally from Euro zone particularly from United Kingdom and Italy in February mainly due to the economic recession in those countries," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country's central bank, told AHN in the capital, Dhaka.
The flow of remittances from Middle-East countries are still at a satisfactory level, the official added.
The remittances from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad were estimated at $784.47 million in February last, a fall by $74.56 million from the previous month. In January 2009, the remittances aggregated $859 million, the BB officials said.
"We've already asked the commercial banks for taking effective measures to expedite the flow of inward remittances from different parts of the world including the Middle East, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Italy and Singapore," another BB official said.
He also said the central bank will take more measures to increase the flow of remittances from the United States and Euro zone in line with advices from the newly formed 27-member high-powered taskforce.
The government formed the taskforce headed by the finance minister on Wednesday to watch over the ongoing global economic recession and help mitigate its adverse impact on the country's economy.
