Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves hit $25 billion again in a week

Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves have risen to $25 billion again, recovering within a week from the drop caused by payment of nearly $1 billion import bills.

On Tuesday, the reserves reached $25.02 billion, enough to foot the import bill for at least seven months. 

International benchmark requires a country to have reserves to meet import costs of at least three months.
 
Bangladesh clears Asian Clearing Union (ACU) bills every two months.

Kazi Sayedur Rahman, general manager of Bangladesh Bank’s Forex Reserve & Treasury Management Department, attributed the fast replenishment to the increased inflow of remittance from the expatriates.

 

He said there was a hike in inflow before the Eid 

The new 2015-16 fiscal had a great start in terms of remittance inflow with nearly $555.6 million coming in the first 10 days. Of the amount, $500 million came in the week from July 4-10. 

The latter half of the last fiscal saw Bangladesh’s reserves reaching three major milestones, $23 billion on Feb 6, $24 billion on Apr 29 and $25 billion on June 25. 

The payment of ACU bills in the first week of July saw it drop to $24.4 billion on July 8.