The downward trend in Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves continues unabated despite a series of initiatives put in place by the Bangladesh Bank.
The reserves is going to fall below the $22 billion mark as per International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) rules after the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) payment adjustment on Sunday.
Md Mezbaul Haque, executive director and spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank, said, “The gross forex reserve stood at 27.61 billion after ACU import bills paid for the months of June and July.”
According to BPM6 method, forex reserve stood at $21.51 billion.
Mentionable, the ACU is an arrangement to settle payments for intra-regional transactions among its member countries, including Bangladesh.
The country’s gross forex reserves were at $29.20 billion and as a BPM6 method it were $23.06 billion on August 30, according the Bangladesh Bank data.
A senior BB official, requesting anonymity, said, “The regulator is continuing to sell US dollars to banks facilitating import bills, and it is impacting the forex reserves despite the initiatives to halt its steady decline.”
Banks, especially the state-run ones, are taking USD support to settle import payments of government entities such as the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation, and Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation.
Due to dollar crisis, the central bank sold around $14 billion to commercial banks for facilitating the LCs opening.
After that, the central bank took many steeps to handle the dollar market.
In terms of export earnings, the USD rate has been increased by Tk 1 from Tk 108.5 monthly.
Besides, the price of the USD has also been increased by Tk 1 from Tk 110 in the settlement of imports.
Bangladesh has been witnessing the dollar crisis since last year and Taka has depreciated continuously.
The USD rate however stood at Tk 84.80 on July 26 last year.
