foreign currencies.

Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserve reached 30.04 billion U.S. dollars at the end of July, said a central bank official on Sunday.

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) Forex Reserve and Treasury Management Department told Xinhua that "the country's foreign exchange reserves stood at 30,039.29 million U.S. dollars in July after reaching 30,159.57 million U.S. dollars in June."

Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves on June 27 crossed the 30-billion-U.S. dollar mark amid a boom in inflow of remittances ahead of one of the biggest Muslim religious festivals -- Eid-ul-Fitr that marks the end of the Islamic holy fasting month of Ramadan, said the BB official who preferred to be unnamed.

The country's foreign exchange reserves in April this year touched the 29 billion U.S. dollars mark for the first time.

Bangladesh, with a population of about 160 million, needs a reserve of about 10 billion U.S. dollars to meet its import bills for three months in light of an internationally accepted standard.

Source : XINHUA