Dollar crisis has been going on in the country for a long time. The main way out from here is to increase remittance and export earnings. But there is no good news. Meanwhile, the central bank continued to sell dollars in the market due to the lack of foreign currency to meet the demand for imports. As a result, foreign exchange reserves are continuously decreasing.

On March 6, foreign exchange reserves in the country were 2,634 billion US dollars. After 14 days yesterday, on March 20, the reserve stood at 2 thousand 525 million dollars. According to BPM-6, it has come down to 1 thousand 999 million dollars. Which was 2 thousand 115 million dollars on March 6. That is, in 14 days the gross reserves decreased by 109 million dollars (1.09 billion) and according to BPM-6 it decreased by 116 million dollars (1.16 billion).
At the beginning of the financial year 2023-24, gross reserves were 29.73 billion dollars and according to BPM-6 it was 23.37 billion dollars.

Apart from this there is another account of net or real reserves of Bangladesh Bank, which is given only to the IMF. is not disclosed. According to related sources, the country's expendable real reserves are now around $15 billion. It will be difficult for Bangladesh to meet the import expenses of three months with this reserve of about 6 billion dollars per month. Normally a country should have reserves equal to minimum 3 months import cost. Bangladesh is now at the bottom of that standard. One of the indicators of a country's economy is foreign exchange reserves.

Officials of the central bank said that due to the crisis, a lot of dollars are being sold in the market from the reserve. Apart from this, Aku's bill has also been paid this month. Exports and remittance flows are low. Due to these reasons the reserve is decreasing.
How is the reserve created?
Foreign exchange reserves are made up of dollars received from remittances, export earnings, foreign investment, loans from various countries and international organizations. Again, the foreign currency goes through the expenditure incurred in various sectors including import expenditure, loan interest or installment payment, salary and allowance of foreign workers, tourist or student education. Thus, the dollar remaining after income and expenditure is added to the reserve. And if the cost is more, the reserve decreases.
Due to high prices of fuel and various products in the international market, the cost of imports has not decreased. Besides, global trade could not turn around after Corona. Later, after the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, the country's dollar-crisis has become evident since March last year; which is still ongoing. This crisis is increasing day by day. The central bank is regularly selling dollars from reserves to bring 'stability' to the market. As a result, one of the most important and sensitive indicators of the economy is decreasing continuously.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a loan proposal of USD 4.7 billion to Bangladesh with certain conditions at the end of January this year. Bangladesh received 476.2 million 70 thousand dollars of the first installment of this loan in February last year and 68 million 10 million dollars of the second installment in December.
Along with various reforms in the financial sector, the IMF also included several conditions while granting the loan. According to the conditions, the net reserve should have been 2 thousand 446 million dollars at the end of last June. But at that time it was 2 thousand 47 million dollars. The organization was informed by Bangladesh that after the parliamentary elections, it will be possible to fulfill the conditions of obtaining reserve and revenue income. In this context, the IMF has relaxed the conditions for maintaining reserves.
According to the new conditions of the IMF, the actual reserve should be kept at 1 thousand 778 billion dollars last December. It should be increased to 1 thousand 926 million dollars in March and 2 thousand 10 million dollars in June. However, financial sector stakeholders are skeptical about whether this goal will be achieved.
According to the data of Bangladesh Bank, 10 years ago at the end of June 2013, foreign exchange reserves were only 15.32 billion dollars. Five years ago it was 33.68 billion dollars. From there, foreign exchange reserves rose to $39 billion on September 1, 2020. It crossed a new milestone of $40 billion on October 8 that year. After that, it increased even in the midst of the Corona epidemic, the accumulation or reserve of Bangladesh's foreign currency made a record on August 24, 2021. On that day, the reserve rose to 48.04 billion dollars or four thousand 804 million dollars. Then due to the dollar crisis, the reserves have been decreasing continuously since last year.
Selling dollars from reserves
The central bank is continuously selling dollars from the country's foreign currency savings or reserves to solve the dollar crisis in the market. The central bank sold $9 billion in the first eight months of the current financial year 2023-24. At the same time, Bangladesh Bank bought about one billion dollars from some commercial banks.
Earlier in the last financial year 2022-23, the central bank sold 13.58 billion dollars to various banks. In its previous financial year (2021-22), it sold 7.62 billion dollars.