The country’s foreign exchange reserves posted a new record of US$ 22.40 billion for the first time on Thursday due to upward trend in inward remittance and buoyed by the release of funds from development partners, said Bangladesh Bank officials. The foreign exchange reserves stood at US$ 22.40 billion on Thursday from US$ 22.33 billion on Wednesday, according to the BB data.The BB earlier posted the highest US$ 22.36 billion foreign exchange reserve.
The BB’s Forex Reserve and Treasury Management Department general manager Kazi Sayedur Rahman told New Age on Thursday that in the first 12 days of December, remittances were US$ 558 million, Asian Development Bank released US$ 70 million as grant and soft loan and the United Nations released US$ 36 million for peacekeepers which pushed up the reserves.
Besides, the Indian government also released US$ 25 million as grant for Padma Multipurpose Bridge in December as part of its committed amount of US$ 200 million, Kazi Sayedur said.
Another BB official said that the central bank purchased greenback worth US$ 1.342 billion this fiscal year till the end of October from the commercial banks which also played a role in making the new record of the country’s foreign exchange reserve.
The BB was forced to purchase the dollar to keep the value of taka stable amid sluggish business environment that pushed the demand of the greenbacks down.
The BB, however, sold greenback worth US$ 228 million to the commercial banks between November and December of this year as some of the banks faced demand of greenbacks due to higher import payments.
‘The demand of the dollar picked up in the last two months, although slowly, because of higher import payments amid lower export earnings,’ said a BB official.
He said that the country’s business situation was yet to become normal as the political uncertainty still persisted in recent times following the one-sided general elections on January 5.
The BB data showed that the reserves had crossed US$ 15-billion mark on May 7, 2013, US$ 16-billion mark on August 13, US$ 17-billion mark on October 22, US$ 18-billion mark on December 19, US$ 19-billion mark on February 19, 2014 and US$ 20-billion mark on April 10, 2014, US$ 21-billion mark on June 16, 2014 and US$ 22-billion mark on August 7, 2014.
-With New Age input