The foreign exchange reserves in Bangladesh, according to the International Monetary Fund guidelines, increased to nearly $22 billion on June 27 from $18.64 billion in May.
Bangladesh Bank officials said that the country received $1.15 billion from the IMF and $900 million from other sources, including Korea, IBRD and IDB, which raised foreign reserves to the current level on June 27 from $19.47 in the previous day.
The reserves were $19.97 billion on April 30, 2024, $19.91 billion on March 31, 2024 and $21.86 billion on December 28, 2023.
The net foreign reserve reached around $15.5 billion on June 27.
According to the Bangladesh Bank’s conventional valuation, the reserves however, increased to $27.15 billion on June 27 from $24.19 billion on May 30.
Experts have criticised the central bank for not devaluing the local currency earlier, as it had artificially maintained the rate, which has now plunged.
The sudden and sharp devaluation of the taka by the central bank has caused chaos in the currency market and among businesses, they said.
The interbank dollar rate soared to Tk 118 after the central bank raised the rate by Tk 7 on May 9.
The exchange rate per dollar was Tk 84.81 in June 2021, Tk 93.45 in June 2022, and Tk 106 in June 2023.
However, the reserves are expected to drop after import payments of around $1.2 billion to the Asian Clearing Union for May and June are made in the next week.
This forum settles payments for intra-regional transactions through participating central banks on a net multi-lateral basis.
