Forex reserves to get $2b boost

Bangladesh's foreign currency reserves are set to receive as high as $2 billion this month, which may send the total to nearly $21 billion, handing a much-needed relief to the US dollar supply. On Wednesday, the reserves went up by $538 million to $19.2 billion from a week ago, showed central bank figures prepared based on the formula of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This is the highest level of forex reserve holdings in the past one month. In a major boost, $1.65 billion is expected to be added to the reserves from the IMF and the World Bank. The IMF may release $1.15 billion in the third instalment of its $4.7 billion loan in the last week of June, said Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali last month. The WB is going to provide $500 million in budget support also by the end of June. This means the IMF and the World Bank's support would lift the reserves to at least $20.85 billion. It was above this level two months ago and at more than $21 billion in March. Last week's improvement comes a month after the central bank relinquished its control over the rate-setting mechanism and introduced a more flexible exchange rate regime.