Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves have soared over $25 billion for the first time on the back of what the central bank says a stable growth in exports and remittance earnings.
The reserves touched $25.02 billion on Thursday, Bangladesh Bank General Manager Kazi Saidur Rahman told bdnews24.com.
“The foreign exchange (reserves) is in a strong situation due to a stable growth in export earnings and remittance”, said Rahman, who heads the central bank’s Forex Reserve and Treasury Management Division.
The reserves were enough to pay import bills for seven months, he added.
According to Bangladesh Bank statistics, forex reserves were $21.32 billion on June 24 last year.
For the first time in history, the reserves crossed the $23 billion mark on Feb 26 this year.
But, the figure dropped to $22 billion after the central bank cleared import bills for January-February period amounting $1.01 billion to Asian Clearing Union (ACU) in the first week of March.
The reserves again crossed $23 billion on Mar 30 and exceeded $24 billion on Apr 29.
Rahman said $25 billion forex reserves would remain until the first week of July, when the import bills for May-June period would be paid to ACU.
BB data shows Bangladeshi expatriates remitted some $970 million in the first 19 days of the month (from June 1 to June 19).
The total remittance inflow in the first 11 months of the 2014-15 fiscal is around $13.87 billion, 7.21 percent higher than the same period of the previous year.
According to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), export earnings in the July-May period of the current FY posted a 2.08 percent growth over the previous corresponding period to reach $28.14 billion.
On Dec 10, 2009, the forex reserves were $10 billion before they crossed $15 billion in April 2013.
Source: Bd news24