Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $769 million in a week, reaching $21.44 billion on December 27 as per the International Monetary Fund’s BPM6 method, Bangladesh Bank data shows. The figure was $20.68 billion on December 20.
According to the central bank’s updated data, gross reserves stood at $26.82 billion on December 27, compared to $26.04 billion on December 20. After the payment adjustment of the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), the reserves will stand around $20 billion in January.
The Bangladesh Bank started following international standards in calculating foreign exchange reserves as per a condition set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), for a $4.7 billion loan approved for Bangladesh earlier this year to mitigate forex crunch.
Since 2012, IMF member countries have been calculating reserves with the Balance of Payments and Investment Position Manual (BPM6). But the Bangladesh Bank took over a decade to implement it.
Reserves calculated as per the BPM6 method are not the net or actual reserves of Bangladesh. Several short-term liabilities, including SDRs from the IMF, are excluded in calculating net reserves. According to that, Bangladesh's net reserves are now around $20 billion.
