January 06, 2007	Saturday	Zilhaj 15, 1427

DHAKA, Jan 5: The foreign exchange reserves of the Bangladesh Bank reached an all-time high on Thursday, thanks to a rise in remittance inflows and export earnings. The reserves, which stood at $3,533m at the end of November 2006, topped $3,953 million on Thursday, official statistics of the Bangladesh Bank show.

A senior foreign exchange policy analyst with the central bank observed that the foreign exchange reserves might touch $4,000 million in a week prior to payment to the Asian Clearing Union to whom the bank had to pay over $300 million under a regional arrangement.

The bank’s statistics showed that the reserves totalled $3,483 million at the end of financial year 2005-06.

Earlier, the forex reserves touched $3,070 million in 1994-95. In 1990-91, the total reserves reached $880 million.

“Increased remittance inflows and export earnings have helped reserves reach this level,” said a senior foreign exchange policy analyst with the central bank.

Referring to a $400 million in remittance receipts during the first 21 days of December 2006, the official expected that the sum would cross $500 million.

Remittance inflows in the July-November of financial year 2006-07 rose 30.86 per cent to reach $2,305.65 million from $1,761.88 million in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

During the July-October of 2006-07, export earnings increased by 23.95 per cent to reach $4,127.30 million from $3,345.95 million in the same period of the previous year.

“The country has also seen a sustainable growth in imports,” the Bangladesh Bank official said.

Import payments rose by 17.67 per cent to top $5,243.10m in July-November of 2006-07 from $4,489.7m in the corresponding months of previous year.