No forex crisis from Jan 2023: BB governor

Bangladesh Bank governor Abdur Rouf Talukder has said there will be no foreign exchange crisis from January 2023, as the country’s exports and remittances have become surplus compared to imports.

He said this while speaking on the state of financial sector at the national seminar on LDC Graduation, organised by Economic Relations Division (ERD) in a Dhaka hotel this morning.

Rouf said a Bangladesh Bank investigation found that the country’s unusual import volume rose over $8 billion since beginning of this year. After looking into the matter and checking the imported goods, the imports fell to $5 billion, which is usual.

“We found in the investigation that some goods were imported with 20 per cent to 200 per cent over-invoicing. Import volume fell as we checked such incidents,” he said.

Bangladesh Bank is also working to check both under-invoicing and over-invoicing, to foreign exchange smuggling, and revenue earning, the Bangladesh Bank governor said.

There is restriction on LC opening, and the central bank is only looking into the LCs’ values and actual market value of goods, which will continue to check foreign exchange smuggling through hundi, he said. Planning minister MA Mannan was the chief guest at the programme. Principal secretary Ahmed Kaikaus, FBCCI president Md Jasim Uddin, ERD secretary Sharifa Khan, also spoke in the function.