Finance
Forex Reserve Foreign exchange reserve exceeds $42 billion
Dhaka, December 16: Foreign exchange reserves exceeded USD 42 billion, more than at any time in the past. At the end of the day on Tuesday (December 15), Bangladesh Bank's reserves stood at USD 42.03 billion. According to the central bank, reserves have increased by more than USD 1,000 crore in the last one year.
According to analysts, reserves have been steadily rising due to the jump in remittances sent by expatriates and increase in export earnings as well as slowdown in imports and increase in foreign debt.
According to Bangladesh Bank, reserves exceeded USD 30 billion in October 2019. On December 15 of that year, the reserves were USD 32.11 billion. On October 29 this year, it crossed USD 41 billion for the first time. On November 5, the reserves fell below USD 40 billion as the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) were paid USD 1.15 billion for September-October imports.
In the space of three weeks, on November 27, it again exceeded USD 41 billion. With the current reserves, it is possible to cover the import cost of more than 10 and a half months at the rate of USD four billion dollars per month.
Nine countries in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Maldives are currently members of ACU. The bills of the products that Bangladesh imports from these countries have to be paid through ACU every two months.
By international standards, a country must have at least three months' worth of foreign exchange reserves to cover import costs. Bangladesh Bank officials said the government will have to pay ACU in the first week of January for bills incurred in the month of November-December. Until then, reserves will be over USD 42 billion.
