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Foreign-exchange reserves fall further as Bangladesh clears due import payments worth to US$ 1.37 billion through the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), but officials dispel any worry about this.
After the clearance of import liabilities, the country's gross forex reserves dropped below $20-billion mark to $19.46 billion as on September 08, 2024 in accordance with the BPM6 calculations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Before the bi-monthly payment, the forex reserves counted $20.80 billion, as recorded on September 7, according to Bangladesh Bank (BB) data.
In terms of BB's own calculations, the gross forex reserves, however, dropped to $24.53 billion on September 08 from $25.87 billion recorded a day before.
Seeking anonymity, a BB official has said reserves normally go down when the economy clears ACU payments every two months, which is a regular phenomenon.
Despite the payment of import bills through ACU mechanism, the reserves are still in good position, the official said.
"Don't get panicked as the flow of foreign currencies continues rising in recent days because of various regulatory measures," says the central banker.
The ACU is an arrangement through which member-countries settle payments for intra-regional transactions among participating central banks on a net basis.
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are members of the Tehran-headquartered clearing union. The ACU-member countries clear their payments every two months.