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Bangladesh's foreign currency reserves have once again exceeded above the $21 billion mark after nearly one and a half months.
The central bank said on Sunday, the country’s reserves stood at $21.38 billion on Apr 17, calculated under the IMF's Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, known as BPM6 method.
On the same date, the gross reserve – which includes different types of funds – was recorded at $26.73 billion, as per a bdnews24.com report.
The last time the reserves crossed $21 billion was on Mar 6, when they stood at $21.40 billion under BPM6 and the gross reserve was $26.60 billion.
However, later in March, following the payment of Asian Clearing Union (ACU) import bills, reserves again fell below the $20 billion mark.
Bangladesh Bank maintains three types of reserve calculations.
The first is the gross figure, which includes different types of funds.
The second is in line with the IMF standard (BPM6), and the third is the usable or net reserve figure.
The central bank does not publish the net reserve figures.
A senior official at Bangladesh Bank said: “The inflow of remittance has increased, and export earnings are also rising. These two upward trends are contributing to the growth of reserves.”
The ACU is an inter-regional settlement system facilitating instant transactions between central banks in Asia.
Member countries, including Bangladesh, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Myanmar, Bhutan, and the Maldives, rely on the system for import-export settlements.
Sri Lanka, however, exited the ACU in Oct 2022 due to a foreign exchange crisis.
Member countries settle their import-export dues every two months.
On average, Bangladesh Bank has been clearing bills of over $1.0 billion during each cycle.
In March, the central bank paid $1.75 billion for ACU bills, according to its spokesperson and executive director Arief Hossain Khan.
Bangladesh’s reserves reached a record $48 billion in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, as the pandemic eased, global prices of fuel and food soared, followed by the start of the Ukraine war, which sharply increased import costs.
The reserves have been on a declining trend since then.