Bangladesh to pay $1.6b ACU bill this week, reserves likely to dip below $26b
Reserves were $27.37 billion on 27 October
Bangladesh is set to pay a $1.6 billion import bill to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) this week, which could reduce the country's foreign exchange reserves below $26 billion, a senior official of Bangladesh Bank said.
Reserves were $27.37 billion on 27 October. The central bank has not released updated figures since.
The ACU, headquartered in Iran's Tehran, facilitates regional transactions among nine countries - India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Established on 9 December 1974, under the initiative of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia, the ACU helps member countries settle trade payments efficiently.
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Bangladesh last paid an ACU import bill of $1.96 billion in July 2022 for the May-June period. Since then, ACU payments had trended downward, staying below $1.3 billion per bi-monthly cycle throughout 2023. Payments began to rise again from the September-October period of 2023, peaking at around $2 billion in May-June this year — the highest in the last three years.
