The foreign reserve of Bangladesh has dropped to $35.90 billion as of Thursday (Oct 20).

According to Bank sources, the increase in Bangladesh Bank’s dollar sales to address the greenback crisis on the market has affected foreign reserves.

High import payments coupled with low remittance and export earnings triggered the dollar crisis.

According to data from the central bank, it sold $4.47b to banks between July 1 and October 20 and it inserted $7.62b into the market in FY 2021-22.

The BB sold $60m to banks at Tk 97 rate on Thursday to facilitate import payments.

On August 31, 2022, the reserve stood at $39.06b which was $46.2b in September of the previous year.

The period of July-August saw import payments worth $12.7b which was $10.85b same time as the bygone year.

Meanwhile, the country recorded a trade deficit widening by $270m to $4.55b compared to the previous status.

BDST: 1810 HRS, OCT 21, 2022
MSK