Finance Minister briefs parliament on forex reserve situation

Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali has said the gross amount of Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves as of May this year is $ 24,161.4 million (24.16 billion).

“According to BPM6 of IMF, the reserve amount is $18,633.5 million,” he said, referring to a different calculation method used by the IMF.

In reply to a query of Jatiya Party MP elected from Patuakhali-1 ABM Ruhul Amin Howlader, the minister said that the country has the capacity of meeting up the import expenses of 4.5 months with the amount of gross reserve as of March, this year.

In reply to a query of ruling Awami League MP Bhola-2 Ali Azam, the finance minister informed the House that according to the temporary account of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the per capita income of Bangladeshi people in 2023-24 fiscal is $2,784.

While replying to a query on the volatile situation of foreign exchange market, the finance minister said generally, if a country has three months of import debt servicing capacity, it is not considered as a reserve crisis.

“Bangladesh's current reserve amount is about $24.40 billion, which will be able to pay about five months of import liabilities, which means the foreign exchange market is stable,” the minister said.

In his question, Awami League MP elected from Kishoreganj-5 Afzal Hossain asked whether it is true that two-thirds of businessmen think that corruption, bureaucracy and volatile situation in foreign exchange are the biggest obstacles in doing business in the country.

The ruling party MP also wanted to know whether the government had taken any effective initiative to stop corruption in business.

While replying to a query of Awami League MP elected from Laxmipur-2 Nur Uddin Chowdhary Nayan, the finance minister said, a total of $10,572.90 million came to the country in between January to May this year as remittance.

He also said that the highest amount of remittance has come from UAE within this time.