Bangladesh Bank made a payment of $1.61 billion to the Asian Clearing Union on Sunday to settle import bills for September and October.
The payment, made every two months, will be drawn from the country鈥檚 foreign exchange reserves.
According to International Monetary Fund guidelines, Bangladesh鈥檚 gross reserves stood at $26.43 billion on Sunday, while the central bank鈥檚 conventional calculation placed the figure at $31.14 billion.
The figures were $28 billion and $32.71 billion respectively on November 6.
The ACU is a regional settlement arrangement through which participating countries 鈥� Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka 鈥� clear payments for intra-regional trade on a net multilateral basis via their central banks.
Bangladesh鈥檚 reserves had plunged to around $18 billion by the end of 2023 after three years of continuous dollar sales to stabilise the exchange rate.
However, the situation has improved since political changes in August 2024.
The central bank has halted dollar sales and instead resumed purchases to counter depreciation pressures and maintain stability.
BB officials said that Bangladesh Bank bought about $2 billion from banks since July.
The improvement in reserves is also supported by robust remittance inflows and stronger export earnings in recent months.
Since August 5, remittance inflow has averaged $2.5 billion per month.
In FY25, remittances through official channels surged to $30.3 billion, registering a 26.8 percent increase, aided by a competitive exchange rate, government incentives, wider use of agent banking and mobile financial services, and tighter scrutiny of informal transfers.
During the first four months of the 2025-26 financial year, remittances jumped to $10.14 billion from $8.9 billion in the same period of FY24.
Exports also gained during the same period, while import growth slowed to just 2.4 percent in FY25. Export earnings were $16.14 billion in the July-October period of the 2025-26 against $15.8 billion in the corresponding period of FY25.
The exchange rate of the US dollar has risen steadily in recent years. The rate climbed to Tk 122 in 2025, up from Tk 106 in June 2023, Tk 93.45 in June 2022, and Tk 84.81 in June 2021.
The central bank said that pressure in the foreign exchange market had eased due to favorable developments in the balance of payments.
Bangladesh Bank calculates both gross international reserves (GIR) and net international reserves (NIR) under the IMF鈥檚 Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, sixth edition (BPM6), as part of its reserve reporting standards.
