Bangladesh foreign exchange reserves rise over $22 billion

Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves rose to $22.309 billion at the end of December from $21.59 billion in the previous month, and were up 23.5 percent from a year earlier, the central bank said on Thursday. A rebound in exports and remittances outpaced a rise in imports, boosting the reserves, a senior official from the central bank said.
Exports rose 9.27 percent in November from a year earlier to $2.4 billion, driven by an increase in garment exports and ending two straight months of declines, according to the latest available data. Garment exports and remittances from its millions of citizens abroad are critical for the South Asian nation of 160 million people.