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Bangladesh’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves will be $19.29 billion after clearing import bills worth $1.21 billion for September-October with the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) next Monday.
Bangladesh Bank data shows that the country’s forex reserves stood at $20.50 billion on 31 October, as per the balance of payments and international investment position manual (BPM6) calculation, according to Bangladesh Bank sources.
The country cleared $1.1 billion in ACU payments for the May-June period in the first week of July and paid $1.2 billion for the July-August period in early September.
The ACU payment gateway covers monetary transactions by its nine member countries — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka — for regional imports.
The bills are cleared every two months.
Remittance inflows have declined consistently in the first three months of the current financial year 2023-24, reaching a 41-month low of $1.34 billion in September.
Expatriates sent $1.97 billion last July and $1.60 billion in August.
However, remittances from October 1-27 stood at $1.64 billion, suggesting a possible rebound.
Export earnings have not been much better. While July, August, and September each saw small increases, four of the top five export products (other than RMG) had negative growth.
The country’s overall Letter of Credit (LC) opening declined significantly in September 2023 due to the dollar crisis, falling 28% year-on-year to $4.69 billion in September.
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