Bangladesh's forex reserves enough to cover up to 9 months of imports: PM

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said her country would be able to meet 6-9 months of import expenditures with the existing foreign currency reserves

Sheikh Hasina
Sheikh Hasina | Illustration: Binay Sinha
IANS Dhaka
2 min read Last Updated : Jul 28 2022 | 12:34 PM IST

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said her country would be able to meet 6-9 months of import expenditures with the existing foreign currency reserves.

"We have money in our hands to import food grains and others (essential items) for at least three months during any crisis. We'll be able to import food for six to nine months, not for only three months, with the reserve that we have now," Xinhua news agency quoted the premier as saying on Wednesday while addressing a virtual event.

The Prime Minister said that despite having enough foreign exchange reserves, the government will have to take steps to grow more crops in order to save the foreign currencies and keep the forex reserves for any emergency.

Her remarks came amid local media reports that Bangladesh has sent a formal request for loan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in efforts to combat the ongoing financial volatility.

The exchange rate of the US dollar in the country's kerb market hit a record of 112 Bangladeshi takas on Tuesday.

Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves on July 13 fell to below $40 billion for the first time in two years, due largely to higher import bills and the taka's weakness driven by the dollar's broad surge in recent months.

The country's forex reserves surpassed the $48 billion mark in August last year, the highest ever in history, due to a slowdown in imports and rising remittance and export earnings during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In its bid to boost shrinking forex reserves, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) in recent months has taken various measures including relaxing rules to woo more remittances from millions of Bangladeshi nationals living and working abroad.

The central bank has said the main objective of the latest half-year monetary policy is to "pursue a cautious policy stance with a tightening bias to contain inflation and exchange rate pressures while supporting the economic recovery process".

--IANS

ksk/

 

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Subscribe to Business Standard digital and get complimentary access to The New York Times

Quarterly Starter

₹900

3 Months

₹300/Month

SAVE 25%

Smart Essential

₹2,700

1 Year

₹225/Month

Save 46%

Super Saver

₹3,900

2 Years

₹162/Month

Subscribe

Renews automatically, cancel anytime

Here’s what’s included in our digital subscription plans

Access to Exclusive Premium Stories Online

  • Over 30 behind the paywall stories daily, handpicked by our editors for subscribers

Complimentary Access to The New York Times

  • News, Games, Cooking, Audio, Wirecutter & The Athletic

Business Standard Epaper

  • Digital replica of our daily newspaper — with options to read, save, and share

Curated Newsletters

  • Insights on markets, finance, politics, tech, and more delivered to your inbox

Market Analysis & Investment Insights

  • In-depth market analysis & insights with access to The Smart Investor

Archives

  • Repository of articles and publications dating back to 1997

Ad-free Reading

  • Uninterrupted reading experience with no advertisements

Seamless Access Across All Devices

  • Access Business Standard across devices — mobile, tablet, or PC, via web or app

More From This Section

Topics :Sheikh HasinaForex International News

First Published: Jul 28 2022 | 12:34 PM IST

Next Story