Despite a global economic recession caused by coronavirus pandemic, the country's foreign exchange reserves hit a new record, thanks to the upward trend of remittance and lower import payments.
On Tuesday, the country's forex reserve crossed to $46 billion for the first time to stand at $46.08 billion, according to Bangladesh Bank (BB) latest data published on Monday.
As a result, the forex reserves increased by almost 28 percent in the last fiscal year (FY-2020-21) from $36.03 billion in the previous fiscal.
Experts said record growth of remittance inflows, moderate export earnings and low import expenditure mainly helped increase the reserves.
Within 12 months, the reserves increased by almost $10 billion, the forex reserves crossed $34 billion, $35 billion, $36 billion, $37 billion, $38 billion, $39 billion, $40 billion, $41 billion, $42 billion, $43 billion, $44 billion, $45 billion and $46 billion-mark for the first time respectively, according to central bank data.
The previous highest reserves amounting to $33.68 billion was recorded on September 5, 2017.
Bankers said the government has taken time befitting initiatives to maintain healthy reserves.
The reserves are adequate to cover about eight months’ import payment for the country of 160 million people, they said.
Despite worsening Covid-19 pandemic situation around the world, remittance inflow in the country hit a record growth to touch a new milestone and will cross $25 billion for the first time in the fiscal year 2020-21, experts hope.
However, the remittance inflow crossed $24 billion to stand at $24.42 billion till June 24 in the current fiscal year, up 34.16 percent over the previous fiscal year (FY 2019-20) amounting to $18.21 billion, according to Bangladesh Bank latest data.
The country's overall imports declined by more than 10 percent or $509.03 million in April last mainly due to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic
An official of Bangladesh Bank mentioned that initiatives were taken by the government timely at various times which apparently resulted in an increased awareness among the expatriate workers to send their hard-earned money through legal channels, pushing up the remittance inflow.
Besides, the higher growth of remittance inflow is attributed to a budget announcement of 2 percent incentive to remitters on inward remittance for the last fiscal year.
On the other hand, another BB senior official said that higher gold prices in the global market as well as lower import bills have helped increase the country's forex reserves recently.
The government expressed the hope that the forex reserves will reach $50 billion by 2021.
