Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The central bank of Bangladesh is set to make a routine payment to Asian Clearing Union (ACU) today (Wednesday) for the period of March-April period of this calendar year, officials said.
The country’s foreign exchange reserve may down to around US$9.60 Wednesday after making the payment worth $732 million from Tuesday’s $10.30 billion.
“We may remit the fund tomorrow (Wednesday) 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 the FE.
The central banker also said the amount of payment came down to $732 million in the current installment from $893 million earlier mainly due to lower imports from ACU 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.
BBN/SSR/AD-08May12-9:10 pm (BST)
