Decision on using forex reserve before June: Kamal

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is likely to come up with something before the next budget for proper utilisation of the country's excess foreign currency reserves.

"The prime minister is contemplating on how much fund might be required to make payments especially for the mega projects. She is likely to come up with something in this regard before the next budget. She will take decisions as she has been working to this end with attention," he said Thursday.

The finance minister was replying to a question virtually after the day's meetings of cabinet committee on economic affairs and cabinet committee on government purchase. He joined the meetings from Singapore.

Arguing that if the foreign currency reserve is invested abroad, then it yields one to two percent interest rate, he said, "But, if it is invested into government purposes after receiving in dollars, then the fund flow will remain intact while the income of the government would increase to a big extent."

Turning to the recent attainment of reaching the foreign currency reserve to the record height of $42 billion, Kamal reminded that the government had earlier projected that the foreign currency reserve will reach $42 billion by this December.

"But, we've able to attain that target much earlier and this is a big achievement for the nation."

Reiterating that the foreign currency reserve would reach $50 billion by 2030, he said, "We're saying this according to our calculation and we expect if there is no such untoward incident in the world, then we'll be able to reach that goal."

Expressing his satisfaction at the inward remittance flow that totaled $11 billion in the first five months (July-November) of the current fiscal year (FY21), Kamal said that the remittance inflow of these five months is also 60% of the fiscal target. "If this trend continues, the foreign currency reserve will also increase."

The FM also informed that $100 million payments of mega projects were made from the foreign currency reserve during this July-November period. Despite this, the foreign currency reserve reached $42 billion.