Bangladesh - Remittance Inflows into Bangladesh (2019–2022)

The inflow of remittances is one of the main driving forces in Bangladesh’s economic growth and development (IOM, 2021b). Remittances support the economy by increasing foreign exchange reserves and national savings and reducing poverty levels (Chowdhury and Chakraborty, 2021). During the COVID-19 global pandemic in 2020, there was decrease in overseas Bangladeshi migrant workers and the inflow of remittances to the country was initially predicted to decline significantly in 2020 (Asia Development Bank, 2020; World Bank, 2020a). However, contrary to all negative forecasts, recorded remittance inflows to Bangladesh remained resilient during 2020 (IOM, 2021a; IOM, 2022). Nevertheless, even though the emigration of migrants increased again in 2021 and in 2022, the inflow of remittances to Bangladesh started to decline. The World Bank’s prognosis for 2023 expects a further drop in remittances to South Asian countries (World Bank, 2023). This snapshot aims to provide an overview of the remittance situation in Bangladesh between 2019 and 2022.