DHAKA: Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves crossed US$24bn mark yesterday, setting a new record.
“The country’s foreign currency reserve has reached to a new height thanks to the stable inflow of remittance and export growth,” said Kazi Sayedur Rahman, general manager of Forex Reserve and Treasury Management Department of Bangladesh Bank.
The reserves, which had earlier crossed the $23bn mark for the first time on February 26 this year, are currently strong enough to meet the country’s import bills for more than six months. The country’s foreign currency reserves had crossed $23bn again on March 31 for the second time in a month.
Currently, Bangladesh is ranked second in South Asia in forex reserve, right behind India, which has a reserve of $339.99bn.
Stable remittance inflow is considered, as the major contributor in the recent forex reserve hike. The inflow from middle-eastern countries increased significantly during the last two months from the middle-eastern countries due to the lifting of the bar on manpower export from Bangladesh.
The inflow of remittance rose by 7.6% in the first nine months of the current fiscal year while the country had experienced a fall of 13% in remittance earnings during the same period of the last fiscal year.
The country received remittance of $6.68bn in July to March of the fiscal year 2014-15 from the gulf countries compared to $6.21bn in the same period of 2013-14, according to the Bangladesh Bank data.
The expatriates sent remittances worth $7.12bn in the first nine months of the fiscal year 2012-13. After a long break, the Ministry of Labour of Saudi Arabia finally overturned the ban on the recruitment of Bangladeshi manpower in February 2015.
The number of manpower export into the middle-eastern countries rose by 30% to 25,883 in February, just after lifting the restriction on Bangladeshi workers, compared to 19,928 in the same period of the last year.
The current reserves will help keep the Taka stable against the US dollar, the central bank said.
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