The country’s foreign exchange reserve crossed $19-billion mark on Wednesday for the first time as Bangladesh Bank purchased US dollars worth $7.72 billion in the last fiscal year and seven months and 19 days of the current FY 2013-14. Higher export earnings against a lower import payment in the last few months played a significant role in increasing the country’s foreign exchange reserve, BB officials said.
According to a BB press release, the foreign exchange reserve stood at $19.04 billion on Wednesday.
The BB data showed that the central bank purchased greenbacks worth $4.53 billion in FY13 and $3.19 billion in seven months and 19 days of this fiscal year.
The central bank purchased greenbacks worth $544 million in just nineteen days of this month.
The BB purchased greenbacks worth $295 million in January, $256 million in December, $445 million in November, $585 million in October, $529 million in September, $226 million in August and $512 million in July of the FY14.
The country’s foreign exchange reserve mainly maintained an increasing trend since the beginning of the FY13
as the central bank started to purchase the greenbacks heavily since then.
The BB official said the huge amount of foreign exchange reserve remained idle as the investment sector was still passing a stagnant situation due to political uncertainty.
The foreign exchange reserve will increase more in the months to come if imports do not increase in accordance with the demand from the industrial sector, a BB official said.
According to the international standards, a country should have enough foreign exchange reserve to clear import bills for three months.
The country will be able to meet import bills for six months by using the $19 billion foreign exchange reserve, according to the BB press release.
The country’s foreign exchange reserve crossed $15-billion mark on May 7, 2013, $16-billion mark on August 13, $17-billion mark on October 22, $18-billion mark on December 19.
BB officials said that the country had been enjoying comfortable foreign exchange reserve since the beginning of the FY13 as imports declined significantly amid political unrest.
Under the circumstances, the BB started to intervene in the foreign currency market after the Bangladeshi currency had fallen to around Tk 84 a dollar in the first half of 2012 from around
Tk 71 in the previous year, he said.
After the BB had bought around $7.72 billion in the FY13, the taka became stable at around 77.75 a dollar for the last few months, he said.
The country’s foreign exchange reserve is now securing the second
position among the SAARC countries while India has secured the top position. The foreign exchange reserve of India stood at $292.33 billion as of February 7 this year.
-With New Age input
