Published :
Updated :
For all latest news, follow The Financial Express Google News channel.
Bangladesh made a routine payment equivalent to US$ 1.88 billion to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) against imports during the March-April period of the current calendar year, officials said.
Despite making such a high volume of overseas payments, the country's foreign exchange (forex) reserve still over $20 billion ($20.29 billion in exact) in accordance with IMF BPM6 calculation on Wednesday from $22.06 billion a day ago, according to the central bank latest statistics.
The stock of foreign currencies was $25.68 billion as per the Bangladesh Bank (BB)'s traditional calculation on Wednesday (May 07) from $27.44 billion of the previous working day.
The amount of such payment rose to $1.88 billion in the last installment from its previous one of $1.75 billion following higher imports from the member countries particularly from India.
The central bank has already remitted the fund to the ACU headquarters in Tehran in line with the existing provisions of the nine-member union.
Under the existing provisions, outstanding import bills and interests thereof are to be paid at the end of every two months among the member countries.
The ACU is an arrangement among Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives through which intra-regional transactions among the participating central banks are settled on a multilateral basis.
The union started its operations in November 1975 to boost trade among the member countries. Bangladesh and Myanmar joined the union as the sixth and the seventh members in 1976 and 1977 respectively. Bhutan joined the ACU in December 1999 and the Maldives in January 2010.
siddique.islam@gmail.com