The foreign exchange reserves of Bangladesh touched all-time high yesterday as the remittance inflow marked a 30 percent growth during the first six months of the current fiscal year.

In view of the average remittance inflow, the growth is seen to be significant compared to the same period of last fiscal, although such a flow came down slightly to $534.20 million in December from $598.29million in November this fiscal.

The high remittance inflow and huge export earnings contributed to a healthy foreign reserve of $3957.84 million.

Meanwhile, the central bank is keeping a cautious watch on the trend of money market as it has observed that the reserves have also upped the value of taka against dollar. It is also found that the supply side of foreign exchange does not cope with the slightly slow demand side because of political unrest in the country. This, it is assumed, may result in a significant drop in price of dollar in the local money market.

The overall remittance rose to $ 2840 million in the July-December period in FY 2006-07, posting a strong 30 percent rise over the same period last fiscal, which was $2178million.

According to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), in the fiscal 2005-06, Bangladesh exported goods worth $10.52 billion, registering a growth of over 21 percent. The export is also rising this fiscal with approximately a 31 percent growth.