January 11, 2007	Thursday	Zilhaj 20, 1427

DHAKA, Jan 10: Bangladesh has made a payment of $330.14 million to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), central bank officials said on Wednesday, shrinking its foreign exchange reserves to $3.69 billion from a record $4.2 billion.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 in 1975 to help countries with scarce reserves of foreign exchange.

“The amount of payment has increased due to higher imports from the ACU member countries during the period,” a senior official of Bangladesh Bank said.

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.

The clearing union facilitates payments between members, minimises foreign exchange transfer costs and promotes trade.

Maldives and Afghanistan have observer status within the ACU.

Average annual volume of trade among the ACU countries was more than $17.69 billion with $7.249 billion traded by India at the top in the list, followed by Iran, officials said. —Reuters