Forex reserves cross $25bn after two and a half years

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

As a result, forex reserves rose by $4.13 billion in just a week.

The current level of reserves is the highest since the end of December 2022. At that time, the country had $26.02 billion in forex reserves. Since then, it has been on a downturn, which caused massive depreciation of the taka, increased import costs, and contributed to inflation.

On Thursday, gross forex reserves as per the central bank's calculation rose to $30.51 billion, up from $26.55 billion a week ago.

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

The BB official said that, in addition, $500 million from the WB and $900 million from the Asian Development Bank have also been added to the reserves, raising the country's capacity to pay import bills for 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.