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Bangladesh’s gross foreign exchange (forex) reserves have dropped below $20 billion as the central bank paid $1.29 billion to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) against import bills, sources at Bangladesh Bank (BB) said.
With clearing the ACU payment, the country’s gross stock of forex declined to $19.99 billion as of March 7, 2024, as per the IMF-prescribed BPM6, from $21.15 billion recorded on the previous day.
In terms of BB arithmetic, the gross volume of forex reserves fell to $25.18 billion until Thursday, from $26.40 billion calculated on March 6, 2024.
Seeking anonymity, a BB official confirmed the payment of the import bills through the ACU mechanism, saying that the country, as a member of the trading platform, clears import bills every two months.
“So, the change in reserve situation after ACU payment is normal. There is nothing to worry about as the supply of forex keeps rising in recent days because of the rising trend in earnings from exports and remittances,” the central banker said.
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 ACU. The member countries of the union clear their payments every two months.