Bangladesh鈥檚 gross foreign exchange reserves, calculated under International Monetary Fund guidelines, neared $21 billion again, driven by strong remittance inflows.
According to Bangladesh Bank data, reserves stood at $20.9 billion on February 20 compared with that of 19.96 billion on January 30.
Bankers said that high remittance inflow and export earnings contributed most to the surge in reserve balance.
According to BB data, remittance inflow was $15.96 billion in July-January period in FY25 compared with that of $12.91 billion in the same period in FY24.
Besides, export earnings soared by 11.58 per cent to $28.96 billion in July-January period in FY25 compared with that of $25.96 billion in the same period in FY24.
In addition, according to conventional valuation by the Bangladesh Bank, the foreign exchange reserve increased to $26.1 billion on February 20 from $25.30 billion on January 30.
The reserve level had previously declined from $21.6 billion on January 7 to $20 billion the next day following a $1.67-billion payment to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) for November鈥揇ecember import bills.
Additionally, the BB repaid $3.3 billion, or nearly 90 per cent, of foreign overdue payments between August 5, 2024, and December 30, 2024, following a political change.
The BB follows the IMF鈥檚 Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, 6th edition (BPM6), for calculating gross and net international reserves.
Meanwhile, the Bangladeshi taka has continued to weaken against the US dollar, reaching Tk 122 per dollar due to a dollar shortage and pressure on banks to settle import payments.
The trade deficit stood at $9.76 billion during July鈥揇ecember of FY25, down from $10.87 billion in the same period of FY24.
However, import payments rose by 3.5 per cent year-on-year to $32 billion, reflecting growing demand for dollars.