Financial Express: Bangladeshis working abroad sent home a record US$ 881.31 million in March last, marking a growth of 12.34 per cent over that of the previous month, officials said Sunday.

"The figure of remittance in March is a new record in the country's history after January last," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the media, adding that a total of $859 million was remitted home in January last.

The flow of remittance has increased as programmes have been taken up to create awareness among the non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) across the globe about remitting their hard earned currencies through the banking channel, instead of 'hundi'.

Besides, the government offers special citizen facilities to the NRBs, who are able to send US$ 5,000 and above annually, the BB officials said.

"The government has already offered such facilities to over 11,000 NRBs who are contributing to the increase in inward flow of remittances," another BB official told the FE.

Bangladeshi expatriates sent home a record US$7.029 billion in the first nine months of the current fiscal, marking a growth of 24.43 per cent over that of the corresponding period of the last fiscal.

The country received $7.029 billion during the July-March period of the fiscal 2008-09 against $5.649 billion of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, according to the central bank statistics.

"The flow of remittances is still at a satisfactory level despite the ongoing global economic meltdown," the BB official said, adding that the central bank has already taken measures to increase the flow of remittances from the European Union (EU), particularly the United Kingdom (UK).

Under the fresh measures, the central bank will ask the commercial banks at a meeting of bankers scheduled to be held in the BB Tuesday for taking effective steps to increase remittance flow from the European countries.

The BB took the latest moves against the backdrop of a downward trend in flow of remittances from the UK in February last, the central bank officials said.

In February last, the flow of inward remittances from the EU and the United States (US) declined slightly following the ongoing economic recession.

The inflow of remittance from the UK 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 BB data showed.

The central bank earlier took a series of measures to encourage the expatriate Bangladeshis to send home their money using the formal banking channel instead of 'hundi' and boost the country's foreign exchange reserve.

The country's foreign exchange reserve stood at $6.04 billion Sunday due to a robust growth of remittance, the central bank officials added.