Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves remain in the $31 billion range following the payment of the Asian Clearing Union's (ACU) import bills for the July-August period. According to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) BPM-6 calculation method, reserves stood at $31.47 billion on Sunday, while total or gross reserves stood at $36.38 billion.
Last Thursday, the country's reserves were $32.56 billion under the BPM-6 calculation and $37.45 billion in gross terms. Reserves declined following the payment of $1.39 billion in ACU import bills.
According to Bangladesh Bank data, current reserves can cover nearly four and a half months of import expenses. In the latest month of June, the country's expenditure on merchandise imports was $7.51 billion.
According to international standards, a country needs to hold foreign exchange reserves equivalent to at least three months of import expenses. In that regard, the current reserve situation remains above that minimum threshold.
Reserves have been increasing over the past few months, showing a positive trend. Alongside continuous growth in expatriate remittances, budget support loans from development partners have also played a role in boosting reserves.
On June 14, after the addition of a $1 billion budget support loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), reserves rose to $31.07 billion under the BPM-6 calculation, with gross reserves reaching $35.62 billion.
Subsequently, on June 29, the addition of a $667.1 million budget support loan from the World Bank increased reserves under the BPM-6 method to $32.47 billion. Gross reserves on that day were $37.05 billion.
Driven by growth in remittances and export earnings, reserves further increased to $33.01 billion under the BPM-6 calculation on July 2, while gross reserves stood at $37.65 billion.
However, reserves subsequently decreased slightly due to various foreign transactions, including the payment of ACU import bills.
The two main sources of reserves are export earnings and remittances. Although export earnings declined by 0.25 percent in the 2025-26 fiscal year, remittances increased by 17.34 percent.
In the first two months of the current 2026-27 fiscal year, July and August, remittances increased by nearly 19 percent, while export earnings grew by 5.43 percent during the same period.
Earlier, on July 7, following the payment of $1.48 billion in ACU import bills for the May-June period, reserves under the BPM-6 calculation dropped to $31.72 billion, with gross reserves at $36.17 billion.
The Asian Clearing Union, or ACU, is a system for settling intra-regional transactions among several central banks in Asia. Through this mechanism, import and export transaction payments among member countries are generally settled every two months.
Besides Bangladesh, members of the ACU include India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bhutan, and Maldives. Since India's export earnings are comparatively higher, the country earns more foreign currency than it pays for imports, whereas most member countries have to pay more dollars for import expenses than they earn.
At one point, Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves surpassed the milestone of $48 billion, exceeding that limit for the first time in history in August 2021.
However, following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022, global prices of energy, food, and various other commodities increased, causing Bangladesh's import expenses to rise and creating pressure on reserves.
To curb the decline in reserves, a loan was taken from the International Monetary Fund. In accordance with IMF conditions, Bangladesh Bank began publishing reserve data using the BPM-6 method alongside gross calculations starting in 2023.
