Despite selling US$ 527 million to the banks in the last seven days, the foreign-exchange reserves increased slightly during the period thanks to a decline in import payments of late, according to official data.
The reserves stood at US$34.30 billion as on November 17, rising from $ 34.25 billion on November 09, showed Bangladesh Bank data made available on Thursday.
"The import payments were lower in the recent weeks than that of the previous weeks," said a senior official at the BB.
Data showed the import payments were $ 2.0 billion as measured by settlements of letters of credit (LCs) in the first 16 days of this month (November), which was 44.27 per cent lower than that of $ 3.6 billion recorded during the same period a year ago.
In case of monthly import payments, it declined to $ 6.41 billion in October 2022 from $ 6.72 billion in the previous month (September).
The forex reserve continued to fall for some time now, creating concerns across all sectors of the economy.
Meanwhile, the central bank continued to release the greenback for enabling the banks to meet their urgent needs during this ongoing shortage of the foreign currency in the domestic money market.
The BB sold $ 60 million, $ 109 million, $ 102 million, $ 115 million, $ 69 million and $ 72 million respectively in the last seven working days.
