DHAKA: Money sent home by Bangladeshis working overseas slipped 15 percent to $1.23 billion in October from a year earlier, the central bank said on Monday.

Millions of expatriate Bangladeshis remitted $4.5 billion in July-October, the first four months of the current financial year, down 10 percent from the same period of last year.

Strong remittances in recent years have helped build foreign exchange reserves to more than $17 billion.

Bangladesh received $14.46 billion in remittances from citizens working abroad in the 2012/13 fiscal year that ended in June, up 12.6 percent from a year earlier.

Remittances from about nine million citizens abroad are critical for the impoverished nation and are a key source of foreign exchange alongside garments, which account for 80 percent of total export earnings of around $27 billion a year.

BDST: 2146 HRS, NOV 04, 2013
AKA/SRS