Special Correspondent
Dhaka: According to the International Monetary Fund or IMF (BPM-6) accounting system, the amount of usable reserves is 19.45 billion dollars or 1 thousand 945 million dollars. Reserves fell below $20 billion as the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) paid $1.21 billion in September and October import bills. It is possible to meet import expenses for 3 months with this reserve of 6 billion dollars per month.
Earlier, on September 10, Akru paid $1.31 billion for its July and August import bills, which reduced the reserves to $21.48 billion. In the last two months, the reserves have decreased by 2.03 billion dollars. Bangladesh will be able to meet the import expenses for 3 and a half months with this reserve of 6 billion dollars per month.
Bangladesh Bank Executive Director and Spokesperson on Tuesday (November 7) night. Majbaul Haque confirmed the matter to Sarabangla. He said that the bill for the month of September and October has been paid. But still haven’t received the voucher. I will get the voucher tomorrow. Then the details will be known.
According to the data of Bangladesh Bank, currently the gross reserve in the country is 26.42 billion dollars. But there is a difference of 5.76 billion dollars with Bangladesh Bank’s calculation based on BPM-6 method as per International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditions. That is, according to the BPM-6 manual, the gross reserve is 20.66 billion. From here, after paying Aku’s $1.21 billion bill, the country’s reserves have dropped to $19.45 billion.
According to economists, the country’s real reserves will now drop to $16 billion. The amount of actual reserves that Bangladesh Bank has now can cover only three months of import expenses. Normally a country should have reserves equal to minimum 3 months import cost. Bangladesh is now at the bottom of that standard. One of the indicators of a country’s economy is its foreign exchange reserves.
It is known that one of the conditions of the IMF loan of 4.7 billion dollars given to Bangladesh was BPM-6 formula calculation of foreign exchange reserves of the country. It was supposed to be released by June this year. In the light of that condition, the central bank published the reserves for the first time on July 13 according to the IMF’s calculations. That day according to the IMF’s calculation, the reserve was 23.57 billion dollars and then according to the central bank’s own calculation, the reserve was 29.97 billion dollars.
It is known that Aku is a means of settlement of transactions in Asian countries. The member countries of this organization are India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. Sri Lanka withdrew due to poor conditions in the country. Member countries pay the import bill every 2 months. Aku bill was 1.12 billion in January this year, 1.05 billion in March, 1.18 billion in May, 1.10 billion in July and 1.31 billion in September and 1.21 dollars in November.
Sarabangla/GS/AK
