Bangladesh forex reserves cross $44b, thanks to better inflow

Bangladesh’s forex reserves rose to $44.30 billion again after a month, thanks to growing inward remittance.

The forex reserve fell to $43.89 billion on March 6, 2022, after paying import bills of $2.16 billion to Asian Clearing Union (ACU). It was the lowest forex reserves for Bangladesh in the past year.

The export earnings and remittance inflows of $15.29 billion in nine months of the current (July-March) fiscal year (FY) pushed the foreign currency reserves to 44.30 billion on Sunday in contrast to a month ago.

Bangladesh Bank sources said that with the reserves, it will be possible to meet the import costs over five months. But even six months ago, Bangladesh Bank had reserves to meet the import cost of 10 months.

However, the inflow of remittance is still in negative growth in the first nine months (July-March) of the current 2021-22 fiscal year. In these nine months, the expatriates have sent $15.30 billion remittance. During the same period of the last fiscal year 2020-21, the expatriates sent $ 18.59 billion remittance.

It shows that the inflow of inward remittance has decreased by 18 per cent in 9 months despite remittance inflow increasing by 24.45 per cent in March compared to February.

Md Serajul Islam, executive director and spokesperson of BB told UNB that remittance inflow in the banking channel is increasing gradually after raising the cash incentive to 2.5 per cent.

The expatriates are taking Tk 102.5 by sending Tk 100 remittance in the hassles-free legal channel, he said.

Serajul hinted that the remittance inflow would increase in April for Ramadhan and Eid as the expatriates usually send more money to their relatives in the country during the festival.

The inward remittance inflow of the last nine months of FY22 saw a decreasing trend compared with the similar months in FY21.

Bangladesh received remittance $1.87 million in July, $1810.10 million in August, $1726.71 million in September, $1646.87 million in October and $1553.70 million in November, $1630.66 million in December, $1704.53 million in January, $1149.08 million in February and $1859.97 million in March of FY22.

In the same period of FY21, the remittance inflow was $2598.21million in July, $1963.94 million in August, $2151.05 million in September, $2102.16 million in October, $2078.74 million in November, $2050.65 million in December, $1961.91 million in January, $1780.59 million in February and $1910.98 million in March.