Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves cross $33 billion

Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves have crossed $33 billion for the first time in the history of Bangladesh.

Reserves grew 10.5 percent to $33.02 billion on Thursday from a year ago, Subhankar Saha, a spokesman for Bangladesh Bank, told bdnews24.com, citing data.

The amount 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 had to defer its payments to the Asian Clearing Union or ACU for imports to avoid compromising the then $1 billion foreign exchange reserves, as that would have undermined the country’s global image.

And now, 17 years later, Bangladesh Bank’s foreign exchange reserves grown by 33 times in all these years.

Steady growth in forex reserves has been marked in recent years. The reserves crossed $31 billion on Sept 1 last year. On Nov 4, it crossed $32 billion but dropped twice after clearing ACU bills. Then again it rose to $32 billion.

Economist Zaid Bakht has termed the $33 billion-mark a ‘milestone in Bangladesh’s history’.

Increasing remittances from expatriates abroad and rising export incomes have boosted Bangladesh’s reserves in the past few years, said Bakht, research director at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies or BIDS.

However, remittance inflow has dropped in recent times, but export earnings continued a slightly upward trend.

Inward remittances dropped by 14.19 percent in the first 11 months of outgoing fiscal 2016-17. Exports grew 3.67 percent in the same period.