Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh’s foreign currency reserves are set to increase by as much as $2 billion in June, driving the total reserves to nearly $21 billion, sources said.
This boost will provide much-needed relief to the country’s US dollar reserves.
The reserves rose by $538 million on Wednesday, reaching $19.2 billion from a week ago, according to figures from the central bank based on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) formula.
Officials noted this was the highest level of foreign currency reserves in the past month.
A significant portion of this increase, $1.65 billion, is expected from the IMF and the World Bank.
The Finance Minister, Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, announced that the IMF might release $1.15 billion as the third installment of its $4.7 billion loan by the last week of June.
Additionally, the World Bank is expected to provide $500 million in budget support by the end of June.
With these contributions, the reserves are anticipated to reach at least $20.85 billion.
This improvement follows a recent policy change by the central bank, which relinquished control over the rate-setting mechanism and introduced a more flexible exchange rate management system.
Central bank officials attribute the rising reserves to several factors, including the introduction of the Crawling Peg Mid-Rate on May 8. This system allows banks to freely trade US dollars at around Tk 117.
The highest interbank exchange rate stood at Tk 118 per dollar on Tuesday. Bankers are charging importers more than Tk 118 per USD and offering the same rate to remitters.
Additionally, the relaxed rules governing offshore banking have contributed to the increase in reserves, officials said.