The country received $2.09 billion in remittance in November 2020, up 34.23 per cent or $532.51 million on $1.56 billion in the same month of the previous year, according to Bangladesh Bank data.

Remittance inflow has been hovering at $2 billion for five months of the current fiscal year 2020-2021 as migrants have continued to send higher amount of money to support their kith and kin following the outbreak of coronavirus in the country.

However, remittance sent by the expatriates in November was 1.16 per cent or $24.7 million lower than the $2.11 billion in remittance received in October.

In July 2020, remittance inflow reached to an all-time high at $2.6 billion after posting record in the fiscal year 2019-2020 when expatriates sent $18.21 billion to the country.

In August and September of FY21, the country received $1.96 billion and $2.15 billion in remittance respectively.

In the five months of the current fiscal year, the inflow of remittance grew by 51.43 per cent or $3.2 billion to $10.91 billion from $7.72 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

Bankers and experts said that the expatriate workers were sending higher amounts of remittance even during the coronavirus outbreak to support their relatives in the country.

Some expatriates are sending money as part of their preparations to return to the country as many countries are still struggling to get rid of the coronavirus pandemic that has reduced job opportunities, they said.

Besides, the flow of remittances through informal or illegal channel has dropped after the outbreak of coronavirus as those scopes for sending money have become inconvenient for the expatriates given the restrictions or limitations on movement imposed by the authorities in different countries to tackle the coronavirus, they said.

The spike in remittance inflow coupled with stagnant import payments has pushed the country’s reserve to $41 billion.

The accumulated reserve of the country has surged by $8 billion since June this year, breaking the previous record of reserve of $33 billion.