Bangladesh foreign exchange reserves slip

Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves fell to $32.60 billion at the end of November from $33.45 billion the previous month, but were up nearly 4 percent from a year earlier, the central bank said on Sunday. The monthly drop was fuelled by a rise in imports, a senior central bank official said, adding the reserves were sufficient to cover about 10 months' worth of imports for the country of 160 million people.
Steady garment exports and remittances from Bangladeshis working overseas, the key drivers of the country's more than $250 billion economy, have helped foreign exchange reserves grow steadily in recent years. Bangladesh's economic growth hit a record 7.28 percent in the financial year ending June 2017, up from 7.11 percent the previous year.