Forex reserves slightly up

Bangladesh's foreign currency reserves rose slightly over the past week after a long time, showed central bank data.

The reserves stood at $19.16 billion as of December 13, as per a formula of International Monetary Fund (IMF) to calculate readily available funds, up by nearly $35 million from $19.13 billion on December 6, showed BB data.

The country's forex reserves has been declining sharply since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war as the conflict sent up prices of commodities such as oil and gas, hurting import-dependent nations such as Bangladesh.

The forex reserves will rise further once upcoming IMF and Asian Development Bank loans along with funds from other sources are available, said the central bank officials.

Bangladesh will receive $1.31 billion in December in loans from various sources, including $689 million in a second tranche of a $4.7 billion IMF loan, as per central bank officials.

In the middle of July this year, the BB agreed to compile and report the official gross international reserves as per the balance of payments and international investment position manual (BPM6) of the IMF.

As per the BPM6, gross foreign reserves include gold, cash US dollar, bonds and treasury bills, reserve position in the IMF, and special drawing rights holdings, a form of international money created by the IMF and defined as a weighted average of various convertible currencies.