Despite a rise in imports in the last couple of months, foreign exchange reserves have hit a new high.
The gross reserves crossed $32 billion by the end of last week after a break of 32 months, thanks to higher remittance earnings and export growth.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star’s Google News channel. The last time reserves reached this level was in January 2023, when they stood at $32.22 billion, according to Bangladesh Bank data.
However, as per the calculation method of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the amount of forex reserves rose to $27.33 billion—slightly higher than a week ago.
Bangladesh’s gross foreign exchange reserves crossed $48 billion in August 2021 for the first time.
After that, they began to decline due to a sharp spike in imports following the removal of Covid-19 curbs and rising global commodity prices amid the Russia-Ukraine war.
In May 2024, overall dollar stock holdings stood at $24 billion.
The turnaround in forex reserves began after the fall of the Awami League government in August last year, as remittance inflow increased.
Bangladesh Bank, which had earlier sold the greenback to support the value of the taka, began purchasing US dollars from banks at the start of the current fiscal year (2025-26) to curb the depreciation of the greenback.
So far, the central bank has bought $2.1 billion in this fiscal year.
The country’s total imports rose by 9.8 percent year-on-year in the July-August period of the current fiscal year, significantly higher than the 1.8 percent growth recorded in the same period a year ago.
