Bangladesh’s foreign currency reserves top $31 billion

The foreign currency reserves of Bangladesh have crossed the $31 billion mark.

The amount was at $31.2 billion at the end of Thursday, Bangladesh Bank spokesperson Shubhankar Saha told bdnews24.com.

This is good enough to clear import bills for the next nine months, going by an estimated monthly requirement of $3.5 billion.

In 2001, Bangladesh deferred its payments to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) against imports to avoid compromising the then $1 billion forex reserves, as that would have undermined its global image.

Central bank officials say that was the first and only time the country had to reschedule its payments.

And now, 16 years later, Bangladesh Bank’s reserves have crossed the $31 billion landmark, meaning the reserves have grown by 31 times in all these years.

 

As per international standards, countries are expected to maintain enough forex reserves to meet import costs for three months. Bangladesh clears ACU bills every two months.

According to central bank data, expatriates sent $14.93 billion in the 2015-16 financial year, 2.52 percent less than the amount sent in the previous fiscal.

In the last fiscal, export earnings increased 10 percent from the amount earned in the previous year.

But the export earnings and remittance flow in July, the first month of current 2016-17 fiscal, both dropped by 3.49 percent and 27.64 percent, respectively.

Bangladesh Bank is yet to release the data on July's imports.