July 12, 2006	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 15, 1427

DHAKA, July 11: Bangladesh has remitted $339.97 million to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) to pay for the higher cost of imports, officials of the central bank said on Tuesday. The Bangladesh Bank remitted the payment to the ACU, headquartered in Tehran, in line with existing provisions of the eight-member organisation, which was set up to help countries with scarce reserves of foreign exchange.

“The amount of payment has increased due to higher import costs during the period,” a senior official of Bangladesh Bank said.

The payment was $327.5 million in May. Under existing provisions, settlement of the balance and accrued interests is done at the end of each two-month period, officials said.

Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves have now dipped to $3.17066 billion after the latest payment, from a record $3.484 billion at the end of June.

The ACU is an arrangement between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to settle payments for intra-regional transactions among the participating central banks on a multilateral basis.—Reuters