DHAKA, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves have crossed the 33-billion-U.S. dollar mark amid a boom in inflow of remittances ahead of one of the biggest Muslim religious festivals Eid-ul-Fitr that marks the end of the Islamic holy fasting month of Ramadan.
A senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) Forex Reserve and Treasury Management Department told Xinhua "the country's foreign exchange reserves reached a record amount of 33.017 billion U.S. dollars Wednesday."
The official reported an increase in the amount of remittances ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, as millions of Bangladeshis living and working abroad sent more money home for relatives during Ramadan.
Like past years Eid has come as a big boon for Bangladesh as the country has received huge remittances, said the BB official who declined to be named.
The Muslim majority Bangladesh celebrated Eid-ul Fitr, the holiest and biggest religious festival among the world's Muslims, on June 26.
However, Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves crossed the 32-billion-dollar mark for the first time in December last year on a steady inflow of remittances.
Officials said Bangladesh is now in a position to pay about 10 months' import bills with the existing reserves, which are also enough to help the central bank's efforts in keeping the foreign exchange market stable.
Huge reserve also reflected the country's strength from the economical and financial point of view, they said.
The BB official, however, could not tell immediately the exact amount of remittances the country received so far this month but guessed it would be over 1 billion U.S. dollars.
Remittances, major source of foreign currency for Bangladesh, offset rising trade deficit which in the last 2015-16 fiscal year (July 2015-June 2016) reached 6.27 billion U.S. dollars year-on-year.
Remittances from some 10 million Bangladeshis, living and working over 100 countries, in July-May period of the current 2016-17 fiscal year ending this month totaled 11.55 billion U.S. dollars, a central bank had earlier official.
