Bangladeshis spend more abroad than foreigners do here

Bangladeshis spend higher amount of money abroad through credit cards compared to the foreign nationals roaming inside Bangladesh, according to a central bank report released yesterday.

Through credit cards, Bangladeshi nationals bought Tk 388 crore of products and services abroad in June when foreigners spent Tk 195 crore in Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) shared the information in its June issue on the overview of credit card users' spending pattern within and outside the country.

June was the fourth month in a row that saw higher spending by Bangladeshis outside the country than foreigners' spending through cards here.

The usage of credit card by Bangladeshi nationals outside the country and foreign nationals within Bangladesh both decreased in June 2023 compared to the previous month, said the BB report.

Yet, overall transaction by Bangladeshi credit cardholders outside the country was almost two times higher than that of the foreigners spending in Bangladesh in June.

The BB report said outside the country, Bangladeshi nationals' spending through cards declined 20 percent month on month in June from Tk 484 crore the previous month. Foreigners' spending through the plastic money dropped by 7 percent in June from a month ago.

The report said India continued to get the highest spending through credit cards by Bangladeshis. But its share has been falling gradually for the last several months.

For example, India accounted for nearly one-fourth of total credit card transactions by Bangladeshi nationals in March this year.

Its share dropped to around 16 percent in June.

The USA and Saudi Arabia were the second and third biggest places where credit card-based spending by Bangladeshis was high.

Bangladeshis spent 14.4 percent of total credit card transactions in the USA and roughly 8 percent in the Saudi Arabia.

And 28 percent of total credit card spending by Bangladeshis abroad was for purchases from departmental stores in June, according to the BB report.

The same pattern was observed in case of credit-card based purchases in the domestic market.

The central bank report said users of credit cards spent 46 percent of their spending for purchases from departmental stores followed by fund transfer.

The BB said two global electronic fund companies -- Visa and Mastercard -- continued to be dominate the credit cards transactions accounting for 71 percent and 17 percent of total transactions respectively in June.

In case of credit card spending abroad by Bangladeshi's, Visa held 78 percent share while Mastercard's share was around 14 percent in June, according to the report.