July forex reserves slip from record high

Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves dropped to $32.91 billion at the end of July from a record high of $33.49 billion the previous month, but were up 9.5 percent from a year earlier, the central bank said on Tuesday.

The monthly drop was fuelled by a rise in imports, a senior central bank official said, adding that the reserves were sufficient to cover about 10 months’ worth of imports.

Garment exports and remittances from Bangladeshis working overseas, the key drivers of the country’s more than $200 billion economy, have helped foreign exchange reserves grow steadily in recent years.