Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves have slipped below $40 billion for the first time in nearly two years after scheduled import payments worth nearly $2 billion with the Asian Clearing Union (ACU).
Bangladesh Bank (BB) settled import payments worth $1.99 billion with the ACU last week, plummeting the reserves to $39.80 billion on Tuesday.
A slowdown in remittance flow after Eid-ul-Azha also contributed to the falling reserve.
Bangladesh’s foreign currency reserves stood at $41.98 billion on July 6, against $46.15 billion in December last year as exports and remittance flow failed to keep pace with blistering import bills.
The ACU is an arrangement through which participating countries settle import payments for intra-regional transactions.
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are members of the Tehran-headquartered ACU.
The central bank has to make the payments every two months.
The country’s foreign exchange reserves remained under pressure in recent months as exports and remittance inflow failed to keep pace with soaring import bills.
Between July and May last fiscal year, imports increased to $75.40 billion, up 39 per cent year-on-year when exports grew 33 per cent to $44.58 billion.
Besides, remittance inflow dropped in the fiscal year 2021-22, the first time in six years, as many expatriates opted for the informal channels to send their money home. The inflow stood at $21.03 billion.
Bangladesh Bank is now injecting US dollars on a regular basis into the money market, helping banks settle import bills.
It supplied a record $7.62 billion in the last fiscal year and $209 million in the current fiscal year.
