Foreign exchange reserves in the country have come down to $19.45 billion. Bangladesh paid $121 million on Tuesday for the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) import bill for the months of September and October. According to International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditions, real reserves were to be kept at $25 billion in September. And according to the IMF, the country’s net reserves are even lower. This information was obtained from Bangladesh Bank.
According to Bangladesh Bank data, Akur Awtadhin Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have paid two months’ worth of import bills, reducing reserves. At present the gross reserve is 26.42 billion dollars. But there is a difference of 5.76 billion dollars with the calculation of Bangladesh Bank in BPM-6 method of IMF. Accordingly, the actual reserve is 20.66 billion. From here, after paying Akur’s bill, the country’s reserves have come down to 19.45 billion dollars.
In this regard, the executive director and spokesperson of the central bank said. Majbaul Haque said, ‘Akul bill has been paid. But the bill payment voucher is still not in my hands. It will be officially announced on Wednesday (November 8).
According to the IMF’s Balance of Payments and Investment Position Manual (BPM 6), the reserve calculation does not include various funds constituted by Bangladesh Bank as well as loan guarantees given for aircraft, loans given to Payra Port Authority, deposits with Islamic Development Bank and investments in securities below certain grades. Bangladesh Bank has been showing these as reserves for a long time. Due to the exclusion of these accounts, there is a decrease of 5.76 billion dollars.
IMF approves $4.7 billion loan proposal to Bangladesh with certain conditions. Bangladesh received 476.2 million 70 thousand dollars of the first installment of that loan last February. One of these conditions was that the actual reserve should be kept at $2,446 million in June, $2,530 in September and $2,680 in December. However, the company recently relaxed these conditions.
According to the data of Bangladesh Bank, the reserve has decreased to this level since last year. Which was growing consistently before. 10 years ago at the end of June 2013, foreign exchange reserves were only 15.32 billion dollars. Five years ago it was 33.68 billion dollars. From there, foreign exchange reserves rose to $39 billion on September 1, 2020. A new milestone of $40 billion was crossed on October 8 of that year. After that, it increased even in the midst of the Corona epidemic, the accumulation or reserve of Bangladesh’s foreign currency made a record on August 24, 2021. On that day, the reserve rose to 48.04 billion dollars or four thousand 804 million dollars. Since then the reserves have been steadily declining.
