Staff Correspondent
Reserves fell to $18 billion after Asian Clearing Union (ACU) paid $1.63 billion. As a result, foreign exchange reserves in the country have fallen to the lowest level in a decade.
On Monday (May 13) afternoon, the executive director and spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank confirmed the payment of Akur’s bill. Majba Ul Haq.
He said, after paying Akur’s bill, the reserve has come down to $18 billion as per BPM-6. However, as a central bank, there are gross reserves of 23.71 billion dollars.
In early 2014, foreign exchange reserves never fell after leaving home by $18 billion.
Meanwhile, the country’s net reserves are now reported to have fallen below 13 billion dollars. However, the regulatory body does not publish the net reserve account.
Aku is an international transaction settlement system. Through this, every two months transactions between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan are settled. Sri Lanka was once in Aku, but they pulled out on their own last year due to the economic crisis.
Bangladesh is in the $4.7 billion loan program from the IMF. Various conditions have to be accepted for this loan. The IMF has cut its reserve holding target to $14.77 billion next June.
At the time of discounting the second installment of the loan, however, the condition was to keep a reserve of 20.11 billion dollars next June. Last March, the net reserve target was set at $19.27 billion.
