Forex reserve close to $6b

Foreign exchange reserve is now close to US$6 billion-mark because of high remittance inflow and deposit of credit money by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, BB sources said yesterday.
The reserve was US$5.83 billion at the beginning of the day and it reached US$5.9 billion at the end of the day yesterday due to deposit of US$100 million from the World Bank as budgetary support and US$50 million from ADB as disaster support credit.
Bangladesh received record remittance of US$710 million in January and the amount reached US$491 million till February 20.
BB sources said the forex reserve might cross US$6 billion mark this month as Oriental Bank's buyer is to deposit US$50 million (Tk 350 crore) to Bangladesh Bank today.
But the reserve might go down to around US$5 billion in the next month as the BB has to pay US$700 million to Asian Clearing Union, the highest ever single payment to the union mainly for a surge in import costs.
Central bank sources said a reduction in government annual development programme expenditure also contributed to the rise in reserve.