Bangladesh’s gross foreign exchange (forex) reserves are still over $30 billion, after settling $1.50 billion in import payment obligations to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) member countries on Sunday.

After the payment for the July-August period of 2025, the country’s gross forex reserves came down to $30.31 billion on the day, from $31.43 billion last Wednesday, according to the traditional calculation of the Bangladesh Bank (BB).

It was $31.19 billion on Thursday last.

As per the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Balance of Payments International Investment Poisson Manual, known as BMP6, the forex reserves fell to $25.40 billion during the period under review from $26.45 billion, according to the central bank’s latest data released on the day.

Such reserve was $26.19 billion on August 28.

As per the existing provisions, outstanding import bills and interest thereof are to be paid by member countries at the end of every two months.

Meanwhile, the amount of ACU payment came down to $1.50 billion during the period under review from $2.02 billion earlier, mainly due to lower imports from the ACU member countries.

Bangladesh is now importing different consumer items, cotton, raw materials, and capital machinery from the ACU member countries, especially from neighbouring India, according to the central bankers.

The ACU is an arrangement involving 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.

The union started its operation in November 1975 to boost trade among the 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.Bangladesh received $516 million in inward remittances in the first six days of September.

In the first six days of September last year, expatriates sent $556 million in remittances.The remittance flow dropped by 7.1% between the periods compared.Expatriates sent $5.41 billion in remittances from July to September 6 in the current FY26.

In the previous fiscal year, expatriates sent $4.69 billion in remittances in the same period. Accordingly, remittances have grown by 15.4%.The expatriates sent a record $2.48 billion in remittance in July and $2.42 billion in August.

Bangladesh’s remittance earnings reached a new high, receiving $30.33 billion in FY25. This represents a 27% increase from the $23.74 billion received in FY24.