Inflation, high dollar rate new challenges: BB governor
Rising inflation and high dollar exchange rate have become new challenges to the economic recovery after Covid-19, said Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir.
"We all need to work together to overcome these issues," he said while addressing a seminar titled "20 years of Counter-Terrorism Activities in Bangladesh - Money laundering and terrorist financing" arranged by the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) Saturday (18 June).
He noted that there is no need to panic as Bangladesh has ample foreign reserves.
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"We currently have $41.5 billion in reserve to meet three-months' import bill," he assured.
The central bank bought $7.9 billion from other banks in the last fiscal year because of the need to reduce import costs due to Covid at that time. It has been selling dollars to banks in line with demand as import spending has risen since the beginning of the current financial year.
"If we have to meet the import cost of $7 billion per month, we will need $22.5 billion in three months," he added.
In addition, the government will spend $3 billion on emergency food, fuel oil and electricity and the total government cost in three months will be about 26 billion dollars, said the BB governor.
