Economic Reporter :
The foreign exchange reserve is to reach a new high in next couple of weeks with crossing $28 billion, says central bank’s data.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) released data last week showing that the reserve posted a phenomenal 23.42 percent year-on-year growth as it stood at $27.80 billion on February 17, 2016 from $22.53 billion a year ago. The monthly growth was 2.47 percent over $27.13 billion at the end of last January.
The central bank’s latest figures also showed that the country received over $183 million as remittance in each of the past three weeks of this February.
Besides this major driver of the reserve, export demonstrated strong 10.38 percent year-on-year growth last month when the total earnings from foreign trade surged to $3.19 billion, the second highest in the country’s history. The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) recorded $3.2 billion, the highest monthly amount of export earnings in December, 2015.
With the record rise in export and steady inflow in remittance, the reserve would cross $28 billion by the first week of next month, said a BB official.
He added that the import growth remained at low level, thanks to the falling oil and food prices on the global market, which would also help drive the reserve to a new height. Earlier, the highest reserve was $27.13 billion on January 31, 2016.
