DHAKA, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The net reserve of Bangladesh now stands at 16 billion U.S. dollars, surpassing the 14.7 billion U.S. dollars target set for June by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to the Bangladesh Bank.
Meanwhile, the gross reserve as of the end of June was 21.83 billion dollars, up from 19.4 billion dollars on June 26, according to the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6), said Md Mezbaul Haque, Bangladesh Bank spokesperson, Bangladeshi newspaper The Business Standard reported Tuesday.
Net reserve, which represents readily available cash from the gross reserves, is calculated excluding short term liabilities from gross reserve as per IMF formula based on the BPM6.
This marks the first time Bangladesh has surpassed the IMF target since the multilateral lender approved a 4.7-billion-dollar loan package in February last year.
In April, the net reserve fell below the threshold to 12.8 billion dollars from 19.6 billion dollars at the end of June 2023, according to the IMF's second review report under the loan package.
However, achieving the target is coming at the cost of import compression which slowed down the country's economic growth fueling inflation as the result of raising fuel cost.
The country's imports declined by 15.42 percent in the first nine months of outgoing fiscal year, according to Bangladesh Bank data. ■