The country's foreign exchange reserve crossed the US$6.0 billion mark once again Thursday thanks to disbursement of soft loans by multilateral donor agencies and a robust growth in remittance.
"We have been able to cross the six billion dollar mark for the second time in Bangladesh," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE on the day.
The reserve rose to $6.02 billion on the day.
The foreign exchange reserve crossed the $6.0 billion mark for the first time on February 28, 2008.
The BB official also said the foreign currency reserve is likely to reach $6.05 billion by the end of this month.
However, the reserve may decline slightly in the first week of next month after routine payments are made to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), the official added.
Under the existing ACU provision, settlement of any balance along with the accrued interest is made among its member countries at the end of every two months.
The ACU comprises Bangladesh , Bhutan , India , Iran , Myanmar , Nepal , Pakistan and Sri Lanka . It is an arrangement for settling intra-regional transactions through the participating central banks on a multilateral basis.
The reserve went up as the World Bank recently released $315 million and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) $32 million as soft loans.
The World Bank has released two funds worth $315 million to assist Bangladesh mitigate the pressure on budget for 2007-08 and implement wide-ranging governance, economic policy and energy reform agenda.
One is Transitional Support Credit (TSC) of $200 million and another is Power Sector Development Policy Credit of $115 million, the BB officials confirmed.
The credits with a service charge of 0.75 per cent from the International Development Association (IDA), the soft loan window of the World Bank, are repayable in 40 years with a 10-year grace period, the World Bank said.
The TSC is to help reduce the pressure on the fiscal year 2007-08 budget that suffered adverse external and internal shocks, including twin floods and cyclone Sidr in 2007 as well as rising commodity prices, particularly oil, food and fertilizer in the international market.
Besides, the ADB has already released a fund amounting to $32 million under a power sector development project.
Both the funds have pushed up the foreign exchange reserve to the present level that will be able to meet payment of import bills of over three months, they added.
On the other hand, the country received $7.163 billion in remittance during the period of July-May of the current fiscal, which was 31.14 per cent more than that of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
