The country’s foreign currency reserve marked a fall by US$ 1 billion over a year to US$ 10431.23 million as on May 31, although it saw a jump in remittance inflows.

In April this year, the reserve was US$ 11316.44 million, according to Bangladesh Bank statistics released on Thursday.

The fall in foreign exchange reserve was mainly due to higher import payment.

The wage earners’ remittances during the July-April period were $9612.98 million, 4.58 percent higher than the corresponding period of last fiscal. The remittance during July 2009 to April 2010 totalled US$ 9192.20 million.

In April 2011, the inflow of remittance was US$1001.97 million, against US$ 922.16 million in the same month last fiscal, marking a rise by US$ 79.81 million or 8.65 percent.

Revenue collection by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) for the July-April period was encouraging, growing by nearly 27.07 to stand at Tk 595558.8 million.

The current account balance marked a sharp fall as amounted to $689 million during July 2010 to March 2011 period, compared to $2643.00 million during the corresponding period of last fiscal.

The country saw a significant surge in current transfer during the period because of higher remittance sent by the non-resident Bangladeshis.

The country’s exports maintained a robust growth of 40.88 percent during July 2010-April 2011 period, totaling $18243.24 million against imports amounting to $27453.00 million during the period. This growth was possible mainly because of higher export of apparels, jute and jute goods, and frozen foods.

The data of the central bank shows that during July-April period of this fiscal, the letter of credits (LCs) worth US$ 32641.94 million were opened for import of food grains, capital machinery, petroleum, industrial raw materials, while L/Cs worth $26221.14 million were settled.

Meanwhile, the country’s external trade marked a negative balance of US$ 5570 million during July 2010 to March 2011 period, against a deficit of US$ 3917 million a year ago, although export during the period registered a growth by 40.61 percent to US$ 16.266 billion provided the apparel sector’s lion contribution of US$ 12.567 billion.

The import payments made by the country during July-March, 2010-11 increased by US$6977.20 million to US$24168.20 million compared to US$17191.00 million during July-March, 2009-10, the central bank data showed.

Of the total import payments during the period, imports under cash and for EPZ stood at US$23230.50 million, import under loans and grants US$41.40 million, import under direct investment US$98.00 million and short term loan by BPC US$798.30 million.

In March this year, the import costs stood higher by US$378.30 million or 13.75 percent to US$3130.50 million, against US$2752.20 million in February, 2011. This was also higher by US$776.90 million or 33.01 percent than US$2353.60 million in March, 2010.

The opening of fresh import LCs in March, 2011 stood higher by US$592.66 million or 19.20 percent to US$3679.67 million compared to US$3087.01 million in February, 2011 and also higher by US$1059.27 million or 40.42 percent than US$2620.40 million in the same month of the previous year. Fresh opening of import LCs during July-March, 2010-11 increased by US$9652.77 million or 47.84 percent to US$29829.35 million against US$20176.58 million during July - March, 2009-10.

Source: Daily Sun/Bangladesh/Jun, 04, 2011