Finance
Usable Reserve Usable reserves fall below $16 billion
Dhaka, Nov 28: Dollar crisis began in the country after the the Russia-Ukraine war started. The crisis is not over yet. Bangladesh's reserves are falling day by day due to the dollar crisis. Bangladesh Bank released an account of reserves last week. Usable reserve is much lower than that.
In August 2021, the reserve of Bangladesh Bank was 4,8000 crore dollars ($48 billion). According to the latest from the central bank, it has decreased to 2,516 crore dollars ($25.16 billion). However, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s BPM 6 accounting, the reserves amount to $1,952 crore ($19.52 billion).
Bangladesh Bank published this information on the website last Wednesday. But not all of this money is usable. IMF has advised Bangladesh Bank to properly account for reserves. According to central bank sources, the usable reserves of the country are now less than 16 billion dollars.
Since 2022, consumption in the energy, consumer goods and transportation sectors has increased globally due to the Russia-Ukraine war. As a result, like other countries, the import cost of Bangladesh increases much more than before. However, compared to that, the flow of foreign currency in the country has not increased. The increased demand for dollars for imports creates pressure on foreign exchange reserves. Because, the central bank has to sell dollars from the reserve to meet the liability of importing various products including emergency fuel, food products, chemical fertilizers.
