Staff Correspondent

Bangladesh Bank's foreign currency reserves have declined further.

After the Asian Clearing Union (ACU)'s March and April payment, the total forex reserves of Bangladesh Bank have fallen to $23.77 billion.

bills worth $1.63 billion. As a result, reserves have declined somewhat. However, Bangladesh will receive IMF's loan instalment next month. Besides, foreign currency of different projects will be released by June. Moreover, the inward remittances sent by expatriates will surpass $2 billion in the current month. It means that the flow of dollar will increase. As a result, pressure of selling dollar from the reserves will also go down.

Sources at the central bank said Bangladesh received remittances amounting to $90 million from expatriates during the first 12 days of the current month. US dollar rate has been raised to Tk 117 with the hope that inward remittances will rise. Besides, export earnings will rise owing to the hike of the dollar's rate, said the officials concerned.

Bangladesh Bank is now selling each dollar at Tk 117.44 to meet the government's import payments. On the other hand, the commercial banks which are buying remittances at higher rates, Bangladesh Bank is also purchasing dollars from them at a rate of Tk 117.44. In spite of it, the fall of the reserves cannot be stopped. The amount of dollars which is being bought is less than that of which is being sold.

In order to address the economic crises, Bangladesh Bank fixed dollar's rate at Tk 117 last week accepting the IMF's conditions which was Tk 110 earlier. In addition, the interest rates on bank loans made market-oriented.

The ACU is an arrangement for settling payments for intra-regional transactions among member countries, including Bangladesh.

It is an international transaction settlement system, through which transactions between Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, India, Iran and Pakistan are settled.