Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserve has surpassed the $23 billion mark because of the “stable inflow of remittance.”
Bangladesh Bank’s Forex Reserve and Treasury Management chief Kazi Saidur Rahman endorsed the information to the Dhaka Tribune on Thursday.
He said: “The forex reserve is on the rise due stable remittance inflow and export earnings.The country received $889m remittance in the first three weeks of the current month.”
“The government is now in a position to pay import bills for over seven months with the reserve.”
The remittance inflow dropped slightly to $1.24bn in January this year compared to $1.26bn in the same period of the last year.
Import of capital machinery has experienced sharp fall in January due to the ongoing political unrest started since the beginning of the year.
The LC (letter of credit) settlement value against capital machinery import dropped to $176m in the first month of the new year compared to $258m in December last, according to Bangladesh Bank data.
The fall has pulled back the overall import growth by 5% to $3bn in January compared to $3.2bn in the previous month.
The overall LC settlement value dropped 7.54% year-on-year during the month, according to the data.
The LC opening value also declined by 7.25% in January compared to same period of the last year and 8.54% compared to previous month.
The country’s foreign currency reserve was $21bn in June, $19bn in February last year and $18bn in December 2013.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
