Forex reserves now $19.38bn after ACU payment

The gross foreign exchange reserve in Bangladesh, according to the guideline of the International Monetary Fund, stood at $19.38 billion on September 18, decreasing from $20.8 billion on September 8.

This decline came due primarily to the payment of $1.37 billion to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) for import bills covering July and August, a settlement made every two months.

The ACU facilitates payment settlements for intra-regional transactions among participating countries through their central banks on a net multilateral basis.

Additionally, the central bank cleared other payment obligations, further contributing to the reserve depletion.

Bangladesh Bank officials stated that to ease pressure on reserves, most import payments were arranged through the interbank dollar market.

Approximately $800 million in dues have already been paid.

The central bank is now sourcing dollars from the interbank market to support state-owned banks and these banks prioritize payments for essential imports, including energy, fertilizers and petroleum, officials said.

According to the Bangladesh Bank’s conventional valuation, the reserves decreased to $24.52 billion on September 18, down from $25.56 billion at the end of August.

Since the political changes in Bangladesh on August 5, the central bank has ceased selling dollars from its reserves, officials added.

Therefore, the decline would not affect the reserves as it would revive soon, they said.

The reserves came down to the current level following continued sales of dollars in the past three years.

The foreign exchange reserves were $20.39 billion on July 31, which increased to $20.8 billion on September 8 due to increased remittance inflows.

The Bangladesh Bank sold about $34 billion from its reserves in the past three financial years, which contributed most to the depletion of reserves.

The Taka weakened against the US dollar, reaching Tk120 for a dollar, driven by a dollar shortage and a pressure on banks to settle import payments.

The exchange rate per dollar was Tk84.81 in June 2021, Tk93.45 in June 2022 and Tk106 in June 2023.