<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Bangladesh received inward remittances of USD $21.61 billion in the fiscal year 2022-23 through official channels, which is the second-highest ever.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The country received a record amount of remittances $24.77 billion in the fiscal year 2020-21, when travel was banned due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Bangladesh Bank (BB) revealed the updated statistics on Sunday (July 2).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Remittances pick up pace ahead of Eid-ul-Azha</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Different research organizations including CPD think that a big volume of inward remittances also came through illegal channel like Hundi. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In June 2023, the last month of the outgoing fiscal year, the expatriates sent $2.19 billion in remittances during the time of the biggest festival of Eid-UL-Azha. Buoyed by this the inward remittances collection stood at $21.61 billion in FY23, which was $21.03 billion in FY22.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is the highest expatriate income in a single month in nearly three years. Earlier, the highest expatriate income was $2.59 billion in July of FY21.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Remittances from Saudi Arabia can increase further: Ambassador Javed Patwary</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those concerned with the sector say that due to various reasons including the dollar crisis, the government took various initiatives to bring more remittances or expatriate income through legal channels.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, remittances did not increase at the rate expected by the central bank, or proved rather inconsistent. UNB</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>