Bangladesh has made a routine payment of US$1.15 billion to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) against imports during the November-December period of last calendar year.
After the payment, the foreign exchange (forex) reserve fell to $31.01 billion on Tuesday from $32.09 billion on the previous working day, according to the central bank officials.
The amount of ACU payment rose to $1.15 billion during the period under review from $1.13 billion earlier mainly due to higher imports from the ACU member countries particularly from India.
"We're now importing different consumer items, cotton, raw materials and capital machinery from the ACU member countries, particularly from India," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.
He also said the central bank of Bangladesh has already remitted the fund to the ACU headquarters in Tehran in line with the existing provisions of the union.
Under the existing provisions, outstanding import bills and interests thereof are to be paid at the end of every two months among the member countries.
The ACU is an arrangement involving Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, through which intraregional transactions among the participating central banks are settled on a multilateral basis.
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