DHAKA, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Millions of Bangladeshis in the first seven months of the fiscal year 2017-18 (July 2017-June 2018) remitted home 8.31 billion U.S. dollars, a central bank official said Sunday.

In the first seven months of the fiscal year 2016-17 (July 2016-June 2017), Bangladesh received 7.18 billion U.S. dollars' remittance, according to statistics from the Bangladesh Bank (BB).

The BB official who preferred to be unnamed said Bangladeshis remitted home around 1.38 billion U.S. dollars last month, also up from 1 billion dollars that overseas Bangladeshis sent home in January 2017.

The flow of inward remittances in the fiscal year 2016-17 fell about 14.47 percent to 12,769.45 million dollars from the previous fiscal year.

Sources said the decrease in total inflow of remittance in the fiscal year 2016-17 was due mainly to sluggish overseas employment in the Middle East and devaluation of the currencies of Britain, Singapore and Malaysia against the U.S. dollar.

Against this backdrop, Bangladesh has strengthened its efforts to send more Bangladeshis abroad with overseas employment.

Bangladeshi Minister of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Nurul Islam last month said they were planning to send some 1.2 million Bangladeshis abroad with overseas employment this year.

The expectation comes after over 1 million Bangladeshis found overseas jobs in 2017.

Remittances, which account for around 11 percent of the country's GDP, mainly come from countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea, among others.