Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Bangladesh has made a payment of US$893 million to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) against imports during January-February of the current calendar year, officials said.
The payment pushed the country’s foreign exchange reserve down around to $9.15 billion on Wednesday from $10.04 billion of the working previous day.
“The central bank has remitted the fund to the ACU headquarters in Tehran in line with the existing provision of the nine-member union,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told BBN in Dhaka, adding that the amount of payment increased slightly to $893 million in the last instalment from $746 million earlier due to higher imports, particularly of capital machinery and textile, from ACU member countries.
Under the existing provisions, outstanding import bills and interest accruing thereof are to be paid at the end of every two months.
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.
BBN/SSR/AD-08Mar12-7:20 am (BST)
