BM Desk : Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves have increased significantly, surpassing $27 billion, thanks to a recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) payout and fresh remittance inflows.

Bangladesh Bank’s most recent statistics indicates that the nation’s gross foreign exchange reserves are $27.30 billion, which is a significant rise over earlier levels. When calculated under the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6), the reserves stand at $22.24 billion.

The data were revealed to the public on Tuesday by Arif Hossain Khan, the Executive Director and spokesperson for Bangladesh Bank. The gross reserves were $26.82 billion as of June 23; $21.75 billion of that amount was documented under the BPM6 standard. Reserves were $26.15 billion (gross) and $20.86 billion (BPM6) on June 15 and $25.80 billion (gross) and $20.56 billion (BPM6) on May 27. In the past, Bangladesh’s reserves were far smaller. Only $15.32 billion was the gross reserves as of June 2013.

Eventually, this grew significantly, reaching $33.68 billion in 2018 and $39 billion by September 2020. The reserves reached a record high of $48.04 billion on August 24, 2021, despite the COVID-19-induced global economic crisis.

However, because of a lack of dollars, growing import costs, and other economic pressures, the reserves have been gradually decreasing since 2022. According to experts, a nation should ideally have reserves equal to at least three months’ worth of import costs in order to preserve economic stability. Bangladesh is on the verge of crossing that line. The recent increase in reserves is seen as a good thing, even though it still indicates caution for the economy.