DHAKA, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves reached nearly 33 billion U.S. dollars by the end of February, the highest level in about 3 years, driven by remittance inflows, a central bank official said Wednesday.
Quoting Bangladesh Bank (BB) data, the central bank official who preferred to be unnamed told Xinhua that foreign exchange reserves stood at 32,987.4 million U.S. dollars in February compared with 32,361.5 million U.S. dollars in January.
For a growing economy like Bangladesh, forex reserves equivalent to about seven months' import bills are considered adequate, said the BB official.
He said the current reserve level is good enough to support Bangladesh's resilience to external odds, as well as to maintain macroeconomic stability in light of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The current reserves level will help the central bank for over 7 months' import bills, added the official thanks largely to inflow of remittances from millions of Bangladeshis living and working abroad.
Bangladesh people abroad in the first eight months of the current 2019-20 fiscal year (July 2019-June 2020) remitted home 12.50 billion U.S. dollars, according to BB statistics.
In the first eight months of the last 2018-19 fiscal year (July 2018-June 2019), Bangladesh received 10.41 billion U.S. dollars remittance.
