Reserves cross $25b after 2.5 years

Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves crossed $25 billion after two and a half years, thanks to an increased inflow of remittance and the release of funds by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB), and other lending agencies.

On Thursday, forex reserves stood at $25.51 billion as per the IMF's calculation method, up from $21.38 billion a week earlier, according to the central bank's data.

This means, forex reserves rose by $4.13 billion in just a week.

This is the highest amount in the reserves since the end of December 2022, when there was $26.02 billion.

Since then, it has been on a downturn, which caused massive depreciation of the taka, increased import costs, and contributed to inflation.

As per the central bank's calculations, gross forex reserves rose to $30.51 billion on Thursday, up from $26.55 billion a week ago.

A senior BB official said the forex reserves were bolstered because of the release of the third and fourth loan instalments of $1.34 billion by the IMF.

The BB official said, in addition, $500 million from the WB and $900 million from Asian Development Bank have also been added to the reserves, raising the country's capacity to pay import bills of more than four and a half months.

Besides, remittance inflow has been growing since the political changeover in August last year, which helped to tackle the sharp fall in the country's reserves.