Forex reserve falls below $22 billion

Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves slipped below $22 billion today after the central bank cleared import bills worth $1.36 billion through the Asian Clearing Union (ACU).

The ACU is an arrangement for settling payments for intra-regional transactions among eight countries.

After the adjustment of the payment, the gross forex reserves as per the International Monetary Fund (IMF) manual stood around at $21.70 billion today, said a senior central bank official seeking anonymity.

The BB cleared the payment on Thursday.

Before the payment was made, the forex reserve was around $23 billion. On Thursday, the BB also sold $75 million to banks from the reserve.

Md Mezbaul Haque, an executive director and spokesperson of the central bank, said the forex reserve stood at $27.61 billion after the ACU payment as per the central bank's calculation.

He did not share the data of gross reserves in line with the IMF BPM6 manual.

On July 13, the BB began publishing foreign currency reserves in line with the manual in a move that will ensure that the country's dollar stockpile is reported accurately.

As per BPM6, gross foreign reserves include gold, cash US dollar, bonds and treasury bills, reserve position in the IMF, special drawing rights holdings -- which is a form of international money created by the IMF and defined as a weighted average of various convertible currencies.

The central bank's previous gross reserves computation factored in other components and subsequently, the number ends up being markedly higher.