Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– Bangladesh foreign currency reserve crossed US$32 billion again on Monday following higher inflow of remittances.
The country’s forex reserve rose to $32.04 billion on the day from $31.97 billion of the previous level, according to the central bank officials.
“Higher inflow of remittances helped crossing the level of $32 billion foreign exchange reserve again,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the BBN in Dhaka.
The country received $774 million as remittances between January 01 and January 12, he said, adding that the inflow of remittances may touch at $1.80 billion by the end of this month.
“We’ll able to settle import bills for more than five months with existing forex reserves,” the central banker explained.
The highest $33.68 billion reserves were recorded on September 05, 2017.
Earlier, Bangladesh had made a routine payment of US$975 million to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) against imports during the November-December period of 2019.
After the payment, foreign exchange (forex) reserves fell to $31.90 billion on Wednesday from $32.83 billion on the previous working day.
Under the existing provisions, outstanding import bills and interest thereof are to be paid by the member countries at the end of every two months.
The ACU is an arrangement involving Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives through which intraregional transactions among the participating central banks are settled on a multilateral basis.
The union started its operation in November 1975 to boost trade among the member countries. Bangladesh and Myanmar joined the union as the sixth and seventh members in 1976 and 1977 respectively. Bhutan joined the ACU in December 1999 and the Maldives in January 2010.
BBN/SSR/AD
