Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserve is likely to fall in the next week after making a routine payment to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) during the period of March-April period of this calendar year.
The payment may push the country’s foreign exchange reserve down to around $9.60 billion from the existing level of $10.235 billion, officials said.
“The central bank will remit 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), the country’s central bank, told BBN in Dhaka.
He 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.
Under the existing provisions, outstanding import bills and interest accruals thereon are to be paid at the end of every two monthly period.
“We’re importing different items and raw materials from the ACU member-countries, particularly from India, to meet the demand for different commodities in the local market,” the central banker said.
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-04May12-12:40 pm (BST)
