Business Desk :
Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserve has marked a slight fall, but it still stands at above US $ 18 billion mark as of March 18, according to Bangladesh Bank.
The reserve hit 19,150.53 million on February 27 this year.
The forex reserve also sees a big rise of $ 5,352.06 million from the $ 13,633.87 million registered on March 18 last year, according to data released by the Bangladesh Bank on Thursday.
Data on taka-dollar exchange rate showed that the taka appreciated slightly as it was trading at Tk 77.7100 against the dollar on March 18 against TK 77.7326 on February 27.
According to the BB statistics, the revenue collection by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) during the July-January period of the current fiscal marked a 9.96 percent growth to stand at Tk 59,477.55 crore.
The current account balance is in a moderate position as it was $ 2,120 million for the July-January period of the current fiscal year.
Buoyed by the moderate performances of the RMG, leather and leather products, exports maintained a growth of 13.96 percent during the July-February period of the current fiscal totalling $ 19,829 million. The imports amounted to $ 20,014 million million during the July-January period having a growth of 3.99 percent.
The central bank statistics also showed that during the period of July-January of the current fiscal year, L/Cs worth $ 22,422.61 million for food grains, capital machinery, petroleum, industrial raw materials were opened, while L/Cs worth $ 21,218.05 million were settled.
Statistics on agricultural credit disbursement showed that about 69.26 percent of the target was achieved during the July-February period of the current fiscal year (FY 14) as disbursement was Tk 10,107.85 crore while the recovery was Tk 11,129.45 crore.
