Dollar sales from reserve doesn’t stop crisis in bank

BB sold $9 b in current FY Expendable reserves $15.87 b

Nasiruddin Ahmed: There is an intensifying dollar-crisis in the country. The central bank is not getting any success in taking steps to resolve this crisis. But to keep the supply of daily commodities normal, the sale of dollars has been continued from foreign exchange reserves. Central Bank Governor Abdur Rauf Talukder announced the end of sale of dollars during the monetary policy announcement for the current financial year 2023-24, but $9 billion have been sold from the reserve in the current financial year.
On Wednesday, Bangladesh Bank’s gross reserves stood at $25.13 billion. And according to BPM-6 manual it is $19.99 billion. However, expendable net reserves amount to $15.87 billion.
Sources related to Bangladesh Bank said that although the speed of remittances has returned last month, it is not as expected. During the first month of this year, expatriates sent remittances worth $2.1 billion. Its amount in local currency is about Tk 23,100 crores. In December, the last month of the outgoing year, $198,987,000 come in full, which is more than Tk 21,800,000. And in the first 9 days of February this month, remittances of $63.17 million have arrived. More than $7 million coming in every day. If the pace continues like this, $2 billion will be released this month as well. The central bank said that the remittances are increasing slightly as a result of the initiative to legalize them. Basically, the extra incentive encourages expatriate Bangladeshis to send remittances through legitimate channels.
Spokesperson and Executive Director of Bangladesh Bank Majbaul Haque said the reserve mainly depends on remittances, export earnings and foreign loans and grants. Policies have been eased to increase remittances. A positive campaign has been launched among expatriates. A special team is working to stop the hundi. Besides, monitoring has been increased to increase export income. In the meantime, the second installment of the IMF and the ADB loan have been adjusted to the reserve. A few more loans are in the pipeline. Remittances will increase in future.