DHAKA, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves hit an all-time high of 30.16 billion U.S. dollars at the end of June, said a central bank official Monday.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) official who preferred to be unnamed said that the country's foreign exchange reserves stood at 30,159.57 million U.S. dollars at the end of the last month after reaching 28,802.90 million U.S. dollars in May.
He said Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves on June 27 crossed the 30-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.
The country's foreign exchange reserves in April this year touched the 29 billion U.S. dollars mark for the first time.
Officials reported increase in the amount of remittances ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, as millions of Bangladeshis living and working abroad scrimp and save during Ramadan to send more money home for relatives.
"Like previous years Eid has also come as a big boon for Bangladesh as the country has received huge remittances from millions of expatriates," said the BB official.
The official, however, could not tell immediately the the exact amount of remittances the country received but guessed it would be over 1 billion U.S. dollars.
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.
