The reserve increased within a week

Ahead of the holy Eid-ul-Azha or Eid-ul-Azha, the country's foreign exchange reserves have increased over the course of a week. As the dollar rate increases, the export income also increases. As a result, foreign currency savings or reserves have increased slightly. However, usable reserves are yet to cross the $13 billion mark.

According to the latest statistics of Bangladesh Bank, the foreign exchange reserves of Bangladesh increased to 18.61 billion dollars on May 21, that is, the reserves increased by 180 million dollars in one week.

According to International Monetary Fund (IMF) Balance of Payments Manual-6, Bangladesh's reserves on May 15 were 18.43 billion dollars.

However, there is another account of Bangladesh Bank's net or actual reserves, which is only given to the IMF and not disclosed. There, usable reserves are calculated by excluding dollars held in the IMF's SDR sector, foreign currency held as foreign exchange clearing by banks and Akur bills.

Bangladesh Bank started calculating foreign exchange reserves in a new way on the advice of IMF from July last year. Earlier, on May 11, reserves fell below $19 billion for the first time in 11 months.

According to related sources, the country's actual expendable reserves are now 13.98 billion dollars. There is no ability to meet the import expenditure of three months with this reserve as 5 billion dollars per month. Normally a country should have reserves equal to minimum 3 months import cost. By that standard, Bangladesh is now in the worst index. One of the indicators of a country's economy is its foreign exchange reserves.

According to the data of the central bank report, the reserve was 21.50 billion dollars in the last financial year 2013-14. In the fiscal year 2014-15 it was 25.02 billion dollars. 30.35 billion dollars in 2015-16. 33.67 billion dollars in 2016-17 fiscal year. Reserves in 2017-18 were $32.94 billion. In the fiscal year 2018-19 it was 32.71 billion dollars. 36.3 billion in the financial year 2019-20. Reserves for the fiscal year 2020-21 were $46.39 billion. In the fiscal year 2021-22, the reserves decreased to 41.82 billion dollars and in the last fiscal year 2022-23, the reserve stood at 31 billion dollars.

Bangladesh /FM