Bangladesh's gross foreign exchange reserve declined to $20.29 billion after clearing a $1.88 billion payment to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) for March-April imports.
The Bangladesh Bank disclosed the information on Wednesday.
On April 30, reserves crossed $22 billion as per BPM6, riding on high remittance inflow.
The stock of foreign currencies was $25.68 billion as per the Bangladesh Bank traditional calculation on Wednesday (May 07) from $27.44 billion of the previous working day.
The amount of such payment rose to $1.88 billion in the last installment from its previous one of $1.75 billion, following higher imports from the member countries particularly from India.
The central bank has already remitted the fund to the ACU headquarters in Tehran in line with the existing provisions of the nine-member 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 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.
Previous payments
The previous ACU payment of $1.75 billion, made on March 9 for imports in January and February, had pushed the country's foreign exchange reserves below $20 billion under the IMF's BPM6 calculation.
However, reserves bounced back in the following weeks.
Before the latest payment, the last time the country made a higher ACU payment was in July 2022, amounting to $1.96 billion for May-June imports, according to central bank records.
According to central bank data, Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves stood at $21.97 billion on 4 May.
As such, even after the $1.88 billion ACU payment, reserves are expected to remain above the $20 billion mark.
Since the payment in July 2022, payments had been on a declining trend, dropping below $1.3 billion throughout 2023.
However, the payments began to rise again from the September–October period of 2024. Continuing that trend, the ACU payment for March–April this year has climbed to $1.88 billion.
