Forex reserves fall by half a billion in a week

Bangladesh's foreign currency reserves fell by $533.82 million in just a week due to a selling spree of the American greenback by the central bank to the commercial banks.

The reserves of foreign currencies stood at $19.45 billion as on March 27, down from $19.98 billion on March 20, according to Bangladesh Bank data.

The growing inflow of remittance ahead of Eid and currency swap agreement with commercial banks introduced by the central bank failed to tackle the falling trend of forex reserves, industry insiders said.

The reserves were above $21 billion in the first week of March this year.

It went below $19 billion after the clearance of $1.35 billion Asian Clearing Union payment and the sales of US dollar to the commercial banks by the central bank. 

The banking watchdog has also continued selling US dollars from its reserves to settle import bills of state-run enterprises.