Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Reserve $10.60 Billion in April 2010

Strong flow of remittance of Bangladeshi workers from around the world has helped to boost the foreign exchange reserve in the country. At the end of April 2010, the reserve stands at $10.60 Billion. At the end of March 2010, it was $10.14 billion. The growth has happened despite spending more money on imports compared to a year ago. In the first quarter of 2009, Bangladeshi companies did not import a lot as the global economy was suffering from recession. So, there was a prediction in the first six months of 2010, imports would increase.

It is estimated that nearly 6 million Bangladesh workers live in different countries and more than half of them are working in the Middle East. 

India is in search of an Alternative to Dollar?

US Dollar ($) is perhaps the only universal currency in the world. The economy of the world is strongly tied to it. As a result, the condition of global economy can fluctuate with the rise and fall of the price of this US currency. In the recent weeks, China and Russia have called for finding an alternative. Their main argument is that most countries in the world keep their foreign exchange reserve in dollar and it sometimes create problem.

Now, one of the top economic decision makers of India has joined the same bandwagon. Suresh Tendulkar is chairman of Indian Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council. That means that he is a big shot in the country when it comes to financial affairs. He stated that India has huge amount of money as foreign reserve and most of it in US dollar. He thinks that India should have less reserve in Dollar and instead should diversify the reserve in some other currencies.

The ongoing economic recession has put some serious question about the dominance of US $ as an international currency. However, I have to say that we have not seen any substantial proposal from any country to form an alternative.