Forex reserves fall to 1-year low after ACU payments

Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves fell to $32.01 billion yesterday, the lowest since January last year, following the largest ever payments made to the Asian Clearing Union or ACU.

According to central bank data, Bangladesh yesterday paid ACU $1,355 million to settle payments for imports.

The ACU is an arrangement by which the participants settle payments for intra-regional transactions among the participating central banks on a net multilateral basis.

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are members of the Tehran-headquartered ACU that was established in December 1974.

Before paying the ACU yesterday, Bangladesh's foreign currency reserves were more than $33.3 billion, Bangladesh Bank data showed.

The reserves had shot past the $33 billion mark for the first time in history in June last year.