Bangladesh鈥檚 gross foreign exchange reserves, calculated under IMF guidelines, soared to $26.32 billion on Sunday amid disbursements from a number of foreign lenders including the International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank and World Bank.
According to Bangladesh Bank data, reserves increased to the current level from $20.86 billion on June 15. The current figure as per BPM6 was highest after its inception in June 2023.
In addition, according to the conventional valuation by the Bangladesh Bank, the foreign exchange reserve increased to $31.31 billion on Sunday from $26.14 billion on June 15.
The conventional reserve figure聽 was highest after February 2023 when the figure was $32.26 billion.
BB officials said that foreign exchange reserve increased as IMF has provided $1.34 billion in fourth and fifth instalment of its $4.7 billion loan to Bangladesh, Asian Development Bank $900 million, JAICA $415 million, AIIB $400 million and World Bank also approved $500 million in funds.
Moreover, high remittance inflow and export earnings contributed most to the surge in reserve balance.
According to the Bangladesh Bank, the country received $27.5 billion in remittances from July 2024 to May 2025 鈥� 28.7 per cent up from $21.37 billion during the same period in FY24.
Besides, export earnings grew by 8.6 per cent in July-May in the 2024-25 financial year, reaching $36.56 billion, up from $33.67 billion in the previous year.
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聽123 per dollar due to a dollar shortage and pressure on banks to settle import payments.
Bangladesh鈥檚 trade deficit, although still large, also showed slight improvement in July-April.
The gap narrowed to $18.22 billion, compared with $18.7 billion a year earlier.
However, import payments rose to $54.8 billion in July-April鈥攁n increase of 4.6 per cent from $52.37 billion during the same period in the previous year.
