Finance
Reserve Reserves fall to $19.98 billion
Dhaka, March 22: On March 6 of this month, the country's foreign exchange reserves were 2,634 crore dollars. On Wednesday (March 20), reserves stood at USD 2,525 crore, and according to BPM-6, the current reserve amount is 1,999 crore or 19.98 billion dollars, which was 2,115 crore dollars on March 6. According to that, gross (total) reserves fell by 109 crore dollars in 14 days and as per BPM it fell by 116 crore dollars.
With this reserve, the import expenses of three months (calculating 6 billion per month) will be met. However, apart from these two calculations, one more calculation is done which is given only to the IMF. According to that, the real reserve of the country is around 15 billion dollars. Earlier, at the beginning of the current fiscal year 2023-24, the gross reserves were close to 30 billion dollars and according to BPM-6, the reserves were 23.37 billion dollars.
According to experts, the economic structure of the country depends on the country's foreign exchange reserves. Generally, foreign exchange reserves are created with the dollars received from expatriate income, export income, foreign investment, loans of various countries and international organizations.
Similarly, expenditure from the reserve is spent on various sectors including import expenditure, loan interest or installment payments, salaries and allowances of foreign workers, education of tourists or students. Dollars remaining after income and expenditure are added to reserves. There has been a severe dollar crisis in the country for several years. Bangladesh Bank is selling dollars from reserves to meet urgent import liabilities. Foreign exchange reserves are drawing down to meet market conditions, with excessive dollar selling and Asian Clearing Union (ACU) debt repayments.
