Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves have declined to USD 37.06 billion after the central bank had cleared import bills to the Asian Clearing Union, an arrangement to settle payments for intra-regional transactions among member countries including Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh Bank paid $1.73 billion on Wednesday (September 7, 2022) to clear payments for its imports from other member countries of the ACU.
India is a member of platform and Bangladesh’s second largest source of import.
Bhutan, Iran, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are other members of the Tehran-headquartered ACU. The member countries of the ACU clear their payments every two months.
In August of last year, Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves soared to $48 billion, the highest-ever in the country’s history.
However, due to the high level of import payments, reserves have been declining since May of this year. The global supply chain interruptions caused by the Russia-Ukraine war have had a significant impact on the reserves.