The Bangladesh Bank's foreign currency reserves rose by $1.51 billion within the span of a week thanks to loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).  

On December 13, the reserves stood at $19.17 billion. It improved to $20.68 billion on December 20, central bank figures showed.

A week ago, Bangladesh received $689 million from the IMF and $400 million from the ADB.

The forex figure is based on the balance of payments and investment position manual (BPM6) of the IMF.

In July, the BB began publishing foreign currency reserves as per the BPM6 manual, in a move that will ensure that the country's dollar stockpile is reported accurately.

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