Bangladesh’s forex reserves cross $44bn again

Bangladesh’s forex reserves rose to $44.30 billion again after a month, thanks to growing inward remittance.

The forex reserves fell to $43.89 billion on March 6, 2022 after a payment of import bills worth $2.16 billion to Asian Clearing Union (ACU). It was the lowest forex reserves for Bangladesh in past one year.

The export earnings and remittance inflows of $15.29 billion in nine months of the current (July-March) fiscal 2021-22 pushed the foreign currency reserves to 44.30 billion on Sunday in contrast to a month ago.

Bangladesh Bank (BB) sources said with the reserves, it will be possible to meet the import costs over five months. But even six months ago, Bangladesh Bank had reserves to meet the import cost of 10 months.

However, the inflow of remittance is still in negative growth in the first nine months (July-March) of FY22. In these nine months, the expatriates sent remittance worth $15.30. During the same period of FY21, the expatriates sent remittance worth $18.59 billion.

It shows that the inflow of inward remittance has decreased by 18 percent in 9 months despite remittance inflow increase by 24.45 percent in March compared to February.

Md Serajul Islam, executive director and spokesperson of BB, told UNB that remittance inflow in the banking channel is increasing gradually after raising the cash incentive to 2.5 percent.

The expatriates are taking Tk 102.5 by sending Tk 100 remittance in the hassles-free legal channel, he said.

Serajul hinted that the remittance inflow would increase in April for Ramadan and Eid as the expatriates usually send more money to their relatives in the country during the festival.

The inward remittance inflow of the last nine months of FY22 saw a decreasing trend compared with the similar months in FY21.