Bangladesh's forex reserves near $22b as new funds arrive

 

Bangladesh's foreign currency reserves rose to around $22 billion after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other lenders disbursed loans.

Today, the IMF disbursed $1.15 billion as the third tranche of a $4.7 billion loan programme. The country received around $900 million from other sources such as South Korea, the World Bank and the Islamic Development Bank, said Bangladesh Bank Spokesperson Md Mezbaul Haque.

"We are yet to finalise the account. We will get the final figure on the next (working) day," he said. Gross reserves would be around $26.5 billion.

The country's reserves as per the calculation method of the IMF stood at $19.47 billion on June 26. With the latest injection, the amount stands roughly at $21.89 billion. This is the highest level in nearly four months.

When Bangladesh began calculating its foreign reserves in line with the IMF's method on July 12 last year, the foreign reserves stood at $23.56 billion.

The reserves have been falling since the second half of 2022 due to higher outflow than inflow.

The gross reserves stood at $41.7 billion in August, 2021.

THE BUSINESS WORLD