BD main debtor in ACU trade settlement

Bangladesh emerged as the main debtor among the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) countries, with a stiff growth of over 58 per cent in 2014 on the back of rising imports.
And the union leadership believes the country's contribution to the total debit transactions is due mainly to growing imports from neighbouring India.
Bangladesh's indebtedness in the past year (2014) amounted to US$5.91 billion to place the country on top position.    
Bangladesh mostly imports industrial raw materials and food products from India that boasts a vast economy just next door.
In terms of debit transaction, according to the latest assessment by the ACU, Bangladesh is followed by Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Myanmar and Bhutan.
And India was the main creditor among the ACU-member countries.
Such disclosure was made by ACU secretary-general Mrs Lida Borhan-Azad at the forum's 44th board meeting held Saturday in Dhaka.
The volume of total transactions channelled through the nine-member ACU mechanism surged into over US$20 billion in 2014 from a meagre figure of $51.44 million in its operation in 1976.
The total transactions include receipts, payments and accrued interests.
The volume was up by $3.53 billion in 2014 over that of previous year.
Bangladesh Bank governor Dr Atiur Rahman, who is the chairman of the ACU for the current year 2015, presided over the meeting.
Dr Atiur formally took charge of the Tehran-based regional cooperation organisation formed for settlement of monetary transactions among the union's members.
However, the secretary-general said the volume of one-way-plus accrued interests booked at the ACU secretariat grew by more than 21 per cent in 2014 over its previous year.
In 2014, the volume of transactions reached over $10.billion. Of the amount, $1.19 billion was cleared through the ACU mechanism and the outstanding amount of 8.99 billion was settled in hard currency.
However, Bangladesh climbed second-top position in settling monetary transactions through the clearing-union mechanism in 2014.
Bangladesh's total annual transactions (credited/debited) picked to US$ 6.017 billion in 2014.
However, India topped the list in total transactions in 2014, amounting to $9.205 billion.
The union secretary said monthly transactions to the member-central banks also picked up to $848 million--nearly $150 million up from previous year's mark.
However, in percentage terms, the island-state Maldives registered the highest annual growth rate followed by Myanmar.
Iran and Nepal booked negative growth of 25 and 3.87 per cent respectively.
jasimharoon@yahoo.com