The reserves were up nearly 3.4 percent from a year earlier, and are 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.