When the whole world economy is at a standstill amid the spread of the deadly coronavirus good news has been received at that time for Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bank's foreign exchange reserves have crossed 34 billion (Taka 3,423 crore) milestone for the first time.
Bangladesh Bank sources said this on Wednesday (June 3). Resources have increased due to lower import spending pressures, foreign loan assistance from donors, the World Bank, the IMF, JICA, and World Bank grants.
According to Bangladesh Bank, the country's foreign exchange reserves stood at 34.23 billion dollar as on June 3. Earlier, in September 2017, the maximum reserves exceeded 33.68 billion (3 337 million dollar). After that, the reserves have fluctuated from 31 to 32 billion dollars for a long time.
If the foreign exchange debt and the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) repay the debt at the private level, the reserves will be reduced again, the central bank officials said.
It is learned that Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Maldives - these nine countries are currently members of ACU. Bangladesh pays the bills for all the products it imports from these countries every two months through ACU. Bangladesh last paid the ACU bill (about 1 billion dollar) for the January-February period in the first week of March. In the first week of June, ACU bills for March, April and May will have to be paid. The reserve it is paying will go down again.
According to the central bank, in the first nine months of the current fiscal year 2019-20 (July-March), Bangladesh has earned 2,825 crore 20 lakh dollar in the export sector including EPZ. In contrast, it has spent 4033 crore dollars on imports.
As a result, at the end of March, the trade deficit in the country stood at 1207 crore 80 lakh dollar. In Bangladeshi currency (exchange rate is 85 Taka) it stands at one lakh 2 thousand 73 crore rupees. This figure of deficit was one thousand 220 crore 10 lakh dollars in the same period of 2018-19 fiscal year.
During the period under review, imports declined by 4.81 percent. Exports decreased by 6.34 percent. However, remittances have increased by 16.06 percent.