Reserves plummet below $30 billion
The reserves of the Bangladesh Bank have once again fallen below the $30 billion mark, just weeks after reaching it with the World Bank's $507 million budget support.
As of Thursday, reserves stood at $29.93 billion, as the central bank sold $59 million to banks to cover government imports payments.
This decline follows a previous drop below $30 billion on 9 May, when a payment of $1.18 billion through the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) for the March-April import bill contributed to the decrease.
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Bankers are increasingly worried as the measures implemented by the central bank to address the dollar crisis have not yielded the desired results.
To tackle the situation, the Bangladesh Bank is considering establishing a single rate for the dollar while allowing the market to determine its price.
In March, as part of a $4.7 billion loan package, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) set a minimum requirement of $22.947 billion in net reserves, which Bangladesh failed to meet.
The IMF has also set subsequent net reserve floors of $24.462 billion by June, $25.316 billion by September, and $26.411 billion by December.
However, the central bank is looking at foreign sources as a hope to increase the net reserves by June as per the conditions of the IMF.
