BB income from foreign currency reserve jumps

Bangladesh Bank's income from foreign currency reserves has gone up 108 percent year-on-year to Tk 6,000 crore in fiscal year 2022-23, as per the central bank's annual report. 

The rise was due to foreign currency revaluations and a USD selling spree of the central bank, said its officials.

The BB has pumped nearly $14 billion into banks from its forex reserve in fiscal year 2022-23.

The central bank finalised its annual accounts for the last fiscal year yesterday, all approved in a meeting of its board of directors presided over by Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder.

The jump was due to foreign currency revaluations and a USD selling spree of the central bank, said officials.

Incomes from both foreign and local currency-based financial assets had increased, Md Mezbaul Haque, Bangladesh Bank executive director and spokesperson, told The Daily Star after the meeting.

As a result, the net profit of the central bank has increased, he added.

In fiscal year 2022-23, the central bank's income stood at Tk 15,000 crore while expenses at Tk 4,252 crore, as per its annual accounts.

As a result, the BB's net profit stood at Tk 10,748 crore, increasing by 86 percent from that in the previous fiscal year of 2021-22.

"We have already provided Tk 10,652 crore to the government of the total net profit," said Haque.

Of the total income, Tk 9,000 crore came from local currency-based financial assets and the remaining Tk 6,000 crore from foreign currency-based financial assets, he said.

Of the total income from the local currency-based financial assets, about Tk 7,000 crore came in the form of interest against loans to the government and the rest Tk 2,000 crore from interest against repo and liquidity support facility.