DHAKA: Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves have hit a record high $12.89 billion, the central bank said on Friday, because of strong remittances and steady export earnings despite the global slowdown.
The reserves were enough to pay for four months of the country's imports, a month more than the minimum set by the International Monetary Fund, A.F.M. Asaduzzaman, spokesman of Bangladesh Bank, said.
Remittances from Bangladeshis working abroad have picked up, ahead of the Eid-al Adha festival later this month, officials said.
Money sent home by about eight million citizens abroad is a key source of foreign exchange alongside garment exports, which account for 80 percent of the total export earnings of around $25 billion a year.
A majority of Bangladesh expatriates is employed in the Middle East and almost 60 percent of the remittances come from there.
The central bank has purchased $1.7 billion from commercial banks since July to hold down the value of the local currency, against the US dollar, a central bank official said.
"We support this intervention as it will encourage both the exporters and expatriates as these two sectors are the mainstays of our economy," Shah A Sarwar, Managing Director of the private Trust Bank Limited, said.
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