Forex reserve falls to $5.435b on $472m ACU payment
FE Report | Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Bangladesh has made a routine payment of US$472 million to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) against imports for the January-February period of this calendar year.
The payment pushed the foreign exchange reserve down to $5.435 billion Tuesday from $5.862 billion of the previous day, officials said.
'We've already remitted the fund to the ACU headquarters in Tehran in line with the existing provision of the eight-member union,' a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.
He also said the amount of payment went slightly up to $472 million during the period under review from $468 million of the November-December period of 2008, indicating higher imports in terms of value from the other ACU member countries.
As per ACU provisions, settlement of the balance and accrued interests stemming from imports is made at the end of every two months among the member countries.
The ACU is an arrangement comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to settle payments for intra-regional transactions among the participating central banks on a multilateral basis.
The union started its operations in November 1975 to boost trade relations among the member countries. Bangladesh and Myanmar joined the union as the sixth and seventh members in 1976 and 1977 respectively.
However, Bhutan joined the ACU on December 9, 1999.
The payment pushed the foreign exchange reserve down to $5.435 billion Tuesday from $5.862 billion of the previous day, officials said.
'We've already remitted the fund to the ACU headquarters in Tehran in line with the existing provision of the eight-member union,' a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.
He also said the amount of payment went slightly up to $472 million during the period under review from $468 million of the November-December period of 2008, indicating higher imports in terms of value from the other ACU member countries.
As per ACU provisions, settlement of the balance and accrued interests stemming from imports is made at the end of every two months among the member countries.
The ACU is an arrangement comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to settle payments for intra-regional transactions among the participating central banks on a multilateral basis.
The union started its operations in November 1975 to boost trade relations among the member countries. Bangladesh and Myanmar joined the union as the sixth and seventh members in 1976 and 1977 respectively.
However, Bhutan joined the ACU on December 9, 1999.