Bangladesh's forex reserves hit all-time high
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E-mail Xinhua, March 1, 2015
Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves hit an all-time high of over 23 billion U.S. dollars at the end of February, said a central bank official on Sunday.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) official who preferred to be unnamed said foreign exchange reserves reached a new milestone last month, crossing the 23 billion U.S. dollars' mark.
According to the official, the country's foreign exchange reserves stood at 23.03 billion U.S. dollars at the end of last month after reaching 22.04 billion U.S. dollars at the end of January.
Officials say a feeble growth in imports has largely contributed to the rise in foreign exchange reserves.
They said most of the businessmen have adopted a wait and see approach in the recent months due to the volatile political situation in the country.
Bangladesh's industrial sector looks set to perform dull in the coming months.
Sources said the country's import orders, which usually grow by around 20 percent to 40 percent, saw a slower single-digit growth last month as the entire economic activities felt the pinch of the intensified political unrest since January this year due to a series of strikes and other political and non-political acts of violence that have led the economy to remain in a fragile state.
According to the sources, BB reserves also rise as it continues to buy U.S. dollars from the market to keep taka stable against the greenback.
The BB, which in the 2013-14 fiscal year (from July 2013 to June 2014) had purchased around five billion U.S. dollars, has bought nearly two billion U.S. dollars in the first eight months of the current financial year 2014-15 (from July 2014 to June 2015) .
The country's foreign exchange reserves in August last year reached 22 billion U.S. dollars' mark for the first time, reflecting the country's strength from the economic and financial point of view.
Bangladesh, with a population of about 153 million, needs a reserve of about 10 billion U.S. dollars to meet its import bills for three months in light of an internationally accepted standard. Endi
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