The country’s foreign exchange reserves set a new record on Wednesday crossing the US$ 19 billion-mark for the first time, thanks to a robust growth of export earnings and inflow of remittances and decline in imports, Bangladesh Bank’s data revealed.
Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves are now double in comparison to Pakistan’s.
Quazi Saidur Rahman, General Manager of the central bank’s Forex Reserve and Treasury Management Division told bdnews24.com that the country would be able to pay more than seven months’ import bills with the existing reserve, which would also help in keeping the country’s foreign exchange market stable.
“We hope that the reserve will remain above $19 billion after the government pays the import bills to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) in the first week of March,” he said.
The central bank’s foreign currency reserves crossed the US$ 10 billion-mark for the first time on December 10, 2009. It further stood at US$ 15 billion on May 7 last year and US$ 18 billion on December 19 the same year.
After India, Bangladesh has the second-highest foreign exchange reserves among the SAARC countries.
India’s foreign exchange reserves stand at over US$ 275 billion while Pakistan’s at about US$ 10 billion.
According to the central bank data, Bangladesh received US$ 1.25 billion as inward remittances in January 2014 – which is the highest monthly inflow of remittance in the 2013-2014 fiscal.
The expatriate Bangladeshis remitted US$ 650 million in the first 14 days of February.
In view of the first seven months (July-January) of the current fiscal, the inward remittance to the country has dropped by eight percent over the same period of the previous fiscal.
However, the export earnings have increased by about 15 percent over the same period.
As per the international standards, a country must have the enough foreign currency reserves to settle at least three months’ import bills.
Source: Bd news24
