Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Bangladesh has made a routine payment of US$667 million to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) against imports during the May-June period of this calendar year, officials said on Tuesday.
The country's foreign exchange (forex) reserve came down to $9.93 billion on Tuesday after this payment from $10.39 billion of the previous working day.
“We’ve remitted the fund to the ACU headquarters in Tehran in line with the existing provisions of the nine-member union,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the BBN in Dhaka.
According to the provisions, outstanding import bills and interest accruing thereof are to be paid at the end of every two months.
The central bankers also said the amount of payment came down to $667 million in the last installment from $732 million earlier, mainly due to lower imports from the ACU member countries.
Bangladesh is importing different items and raw materials and capital machinery from the ACU member countries, particularly from India, to meet the demand for the commodities in the local market, he noted.
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/SI-10July12-11:50 pm (BST)
