Bangladesh remittances reach nearly $7bn in fiscal\'s first half

Bangladesh's overall remittance reached nearly 7 billion U.S. dollars during the first half of the current fiscal year (July 2013-June 2014), a central bank official said Monday. Quoting provisional data, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) official who preferred to be unnamed said "inflow of remittances from Bangladeshis fell by about 9 percent year on year to 6,778.57 million U.S. dollars in the first half of 2013-14 fiscal year ( July 2013-June 2014)." He said the flow of inward remittances in the last month was 5. 50 percent lower than that in the same period a year earlier. According to the official, the country's political instability surrounding the Jan. 5 parliament elections, among other factors, has taken toll on the inflow of remittance. The inflow of remittances by millions of non-resident Bangladeshis in the 2012-13 (July 2012-June 2013) fiscal year reached a record high of nearly 15 billion U.S. dollars, about 13 percent higher than the same period a year ago.