Gross reserves to fall below $20b on ACU payment

FE REPORT
| Published: November 07, 2023 22:55:51

Bangladesh’s gross foreign-exchange reserves are set to drop below $20 billion as the central bank paid $1.17 billion to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) against import bills, officials said.
However, the volume of the ACU payment has not yet been subtracted from the gross figure of the forex reserves as it has not been officially executed.
Seeking anonymity, a BB official said they have already sent the payment but they are yet to receive confirmation.
“We hope to get confirmation regarding import payments through the ACU mechanism by Wednesday. That’s why the reserve size has not been curtailed,” said the official.
Before the bi-monthly payment, the forex reserves were more than $20.80 billion, as recorded on November 7 this year in line with the IMF’s BPM6, according to Bangladesh Bank (BB) data.
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.
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