$1b paid to ACU for rising imports in first 2 months

The Asian Clearing Union (ACU) payment increased during the first two months of this calendar year due to rising imports from its member-countries, particularly from India.
The amount of payment rose to more than US$1.0 billion in the last instalment from around $900 million earlier, mainly due to higher imports from ACU member-countries.
"We're importing different items including rice from the ACU member-countries, particularly from India to meet the demand for commodities in the local market," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.
Bangladesh made the payment to the ACU against imports during the January-February period of the current calendar year.
After the payment, the country's foreign exchange (forex) reserve came down to $22.13 billion Thursday from $ 23.07 billion of the previous working day, according to the central bank statistics.
"We've already remitted the fund to the ACU headquarters in Tehran in line with the existing provision of the nine-member union," the central banker noted.
Under the existing provisions, outstanding import bills and interest accruing thereof are to be paid at the end of every two months.
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.
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