Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserve Tuesday hit a record high of 3.8 billion U.S. dollars on strong remittance and export earnings, local news agency UNB reported.

"The country's external current account balance has turned into a significant surplus with robust growth in exports and remittance reinforced by a slower growth in imports," a senior official of Bangladesh Bank, the central bank, was quoted by UNB as saying.

"A significant surplus in current account balance as well as capital account has led to a sizable surplus in the overall balance, improving the international reserve position," he said.

The reserve was around 3 billion dollars at the end of June 1995, but started declining to plunge below 1 billion dollars in 2001. The reserve was hovering just over 3 billion dollars during the 2005-06 fiscal year (July 2005-June 2006).