Import payments of ACU member-states drop

Siddique Islam | Published: May 08, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Import payments of the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) member-countries dropped significantly in recent months following declining trend of commodity prices in the global market, officials said.
The import payments fell by more than 12 per cent to US$879 million during March-April period of this calendar year from $1.0 billion in the same period of 2015, according to the central bank officials.
It was $860 million against imports of the January-February period of 2016, they added.
"The overall imports from the ACU member- countries decreased in terms of value, not quantity, due to falling trend of commodities prices in the global market," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Saturday.
He also said Bangladesh is now importing different consumer items and raw materials from the ACU member-countries, particularly from India, to meet its growing demand in the local market.
Talking to the FE, another BB official said the central bank has already remitted the fund to the ACU headquarters in Tehran in line with the existing provision of the nine-member union.
After clearing the payment, the country's foreign exchange reserve came down to $28.36 billion Thursday from $29.22 billion of the previous working day, according to the central bank statistics.
"We're still in satisfactory position on the forex reserve mainly due to higher export earnings but comparatively lower import payment obligations," the central banker explained.
Besides, purchase of the US dollar from the commercial banks has also contributed to increasing the forex reserve recently, he added.
A total of $3.36 billion was bought from the commercial banks between July 2 and May 5 of the ongoing fiscal year (FY) 2015-16 for offsetting its increased supply to the market.
The central bank bought $3.76 billion from the commercial banks in the last financial year, the BB data showed.
The BB official also said Bangladesh may easily meet the import bills for over seven months with the existing reserve.
Under the existing provisions, outstanding import bills and interest accruing against thereof are settled at the end of every two months among the member- countries. Â
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.
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