Forex  reserve dips below USD 30b 

The foreign currency reserves have once again plummeted below the threshold of USD 30 billion as the central bank has settled a good amount of import bills.  

The Bangladesh Bank had a forex reserve of USD 31.16 billion on Wednesday and it plunged to USD 29.97 billion on Thursday.

According to officials, the central bank paid USD 1.09 billion to the Asian Clearing Unit (ACU) on Thursday, to clear import liabilities for the months of May and June. The payment was funded from the reserve money. 

Earlier, the forex reserves depleted below USD 30 billion twice in May, due to import bill settlements and offloading dollars in the market.

The situation improved to some extent when various loan funds, including that of World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), were injected into the reserves.  

The ACU is an inter-regional payment gateway for central banks to settle import and export bills between nine Asian countries after every two months. 

The ACU member countries include Bangladesh, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bhutan, and the Maldives. Sri Lanka has recently been removed from the facility after it failed to settle its debt liabilities.