After 44 consecutive months, the country's foreign exchange reserves have returned to the $36 billion mark.
According to the latest data from Bangladesh Bank, the country's gross foreign exchange reserves stood at $36.10 billion at the end of the day on Wednesday (June 24).
Earlier, the reserves fell below $36 billion in October 2022. Later, due to the foreign exchange crisis, increasing import costs and pressure on the dollar market, the reserves continued to decline continuously.
During the political change in August 2024, the gross reserves fell to $25.92 billion.
Bangladesh Bank executive director and spokesperson Arif Hossain Khan said that as of June 24, the country's total (gross) reserves stood at $36,103.89 million.
On the other hand, according to the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM-6) method of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the amount of reserves stood at $31,552.67 million or $31.55 billion.
According to Bangladesh Bank data, as of June 23, the gross reserves were $35.80 billion and the reserves according to BPM-6 were $31.24 billion. About $306 million has been added to the reserves in a single day.
According to the terms of the IMF loan program, Bangladesh Bank has been publishing the reserve account in the BPM-6 method since June 2023. At that time, the country's reserves in this method were $24.75 billion.
On January 19 of this year, the reserves exceeded $30 billion for the first time according to the BPM-6 calculation.
Later, on June 14, after receiving a $1 billion loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the reserves exceeded $31 billion.
Central bank officials said that the BPM-6 method calculates the actual usable reserves by excluding short-term foreign liabilities and other irrecoverable assets. As a result, this calculation appears slightly lower than the gross reserves.
The foreign exchange reserves reached their highest point in Bangladesh's history in August 2021, when the reserves crossed the milestone of $48 billion. However, the reserves began to decline rapidly due to various reasons including global economic instability, increased import costs, demand for the dollar, and money laundering. At the same time, the exchange rate per dollar increased from about 84 taka to around 120 taka. According to the BPM-6 calculation in August 2024, the reserves fell to $20.48 billion.
Analysts say that the significant increase in expatriate income or remittance flow is playing the biggest role behind the recovery of reserves.
According to Bangladesh Bank data, $34.99 billion in remittances have been received through banking channels from the beginning of the current fiscal year to June 23.
This is $5.28 billion or 18.39% more than the same period in the previous fiscal year. Remittances had increased by about 27% in the previous fiscal year as well.
