Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’ foreign exchange (forex) reserve crossed US$14 billion-mark again Wednesday, due mainly to the higher inflow of remittance, officials said.
The forex reserve rose to $14.158 billion on the day from $13.992 billion of the previous day. It was $14.275 billion on March 6 last, according to the central bank statistics.
"The country’s forex reserve has crossed the $14 billion-mark, following higher growth of inward remittance, lower import payment pressure and rising trend of export earnings,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told BBN in Dhaka.
He also said such upward trend of forex reserve may continue in the coming days.
On the other hand, the central bank is purchasing the US dollar from the commercial banks directly that has also contributed to increase the forex reserve recently.
A total of $3.601billion has been bought from the commercial banks, so far, in the FY `13 as part of the central bank's intervention in the market, the BB officials said.
The country's overall import payment came down to $19.243 billion in the first seven months of the FY `13 from $19.908 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
The overall export earnings increased by 9.38 per cent to $17.40 billion in the July-February period of the FY `13 compared to $15.908 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal, according to the state-run Export Promotion Bureau statistics.
BBN/SSR/AD-03Apr13-9:07 pm (BST)
