Imports from Asian Clearing Union (ACU) member countries increased by more than 18 per cent in the January-February period of this calendar year, officials said.
The amount of payment rose to $1.15 billion during the period from $975 million earlier mainly due to higher imports from the ACU member countries, particularly from India, they explained.
After the payment, foreign exchange (forex) reserves fell to $31.99 billion on Wednesday from $33.09 billion on the previous working day, show the latest statistics of the Bangladesh Bank.
"We'll be able to settle import bills for at least six months with existing forex reserves," a senior central banker told the FE on Thursday.
The central bank has already remitted the fund to the ACU headquarters in Tehran in line with the existing provisions of the union, he added.
As per the provisions, outstanding import bills and interest thereof are to be paid by member countries at the end of every two months.
Bangladesh imports different consumer items, cotton, raw materials and capital machinery from ACU countries, especially from neighbouring India.
"Some businessmen prefer to import essential items from India instead of China to avoid coronavirus outbreak," the central banker said while explaining the latest import trend of the ACU countries.
The ACU involves Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives through which intraregional transactions among the participating central banks are settled on a multilateral basis.
It started operations in November 1975 to boost trade among member countries.
Bangladesh and Myanmar joined the union as the sixth and seventh members in 1976 and 1977 respectively.
Bhutan joined the ACU in December 1999 and the Maldives in January 2010.
