Dhaka, May 16 -- As it watched the country's foreign exchange reserves keep draining away, from the peak of $48.1 billion in August 2021 to a net figure that may be less than $13 billion today, Bangladesh Bank became engaged in studying the minutiae of different types of calculations and definitions of a country's reserve holdings, and all their different interpretations, like an A Levels Macroeconomics student.

The convoluted discussion it created around the country's reserves - this formula, that formula, IMF manuals, and payouts from the reserve in the form of loans that were not initially disclosed, have all contributed to a cloud over the entire situation for a while now. Consumers are forced to grapple with all kinds of different i...