FOREX RESERVES HIT RECORD $26B

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Bangladesh’s foreign currency reserves keep showing an upwards trend as they crossed $26 billion mark for the first time in history on August 17, 2015. On this date the exact figure for the forex reserve was $26.03 billion which showed an increase of 17.8 percent as compared to last year. This is good news for Bangladesh as the current forex reserve puts it in a very good position and makes it possible for it to meet all of its import bills for the next seven months. It also provides resilience to the country’s economy making it capable of withstanding any external or even internal economic shock. The growing forex reserves are helping to create better economic conditions by enabling thof Bangladesh to maintain a stable exchange rate.

The central bank accredited the increase in forex to foreign direct investments (FDIs), earnings from exports, foreign sourced loans, and remittance. Bangladesh’s import bills have also been seeing a decline for some time and that has also played its role in making the foreign currency reserves jump. Food grains and petroleum products are among the main imports for Bangladesh and the bills for both of these categories have reduced. Imports in the garment sector have also gone down as instead of importing the accessories used in this sector Bangladesh is now getting them from local industries.