Forex reserve hits record $45.1b

The country's foreign exchange reserves yesterday hit a new record of $45.1 billion thanks to an upward trend of remittance and lower import payments.

The reserves, one of the major macroeconomic indicators of an economy, have gone up 36.22 per cent in the last one year. It was $33.11 billion on April 30, 2020, according to data from the central bank.

A strong inflow of remittance has largely helped the country build up the foreign exchange reserve, said a Bangladesh Bank official.

Between July and April this fiscal year, the Bangladeshi diaspora sent remittances worth $20.66 billion, up 39 per cent year-on-year.

Imports, however, slightly increased 1.9 per cent year-on-year to $37.06 billion in the eight months of this fiscal year.

The growth of imports has been feeble in recent months, which is not expected given the volume of the country's economic activity, said the official.

This has helped push the foreign exchange reserve up as well.

But the reserve amount will be short lived, as the country will have to pay $1.74 billion today to settle import payments to member countries of Asian Clearing Union (ACU).

The ACU is an arrangement by which participating central banks use multilateral netting to settle intra-regional transaction payments.

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are members of the ACU, headquartered in Tehran.