Reserves will stay fine after paying ACU bills: BB

 
As part of the country's foreign exchange (forex) market stabilization moves, Bangladesh Bank's (BB) dollar netting from commercial banks reached almost a billion-mark in less than two months.

With the latest interventions of buying $47.50 million more through auctions from the interbank spot market on Tuesday, the central bank has so far bought $995.50 million since July 13 last under the prevailing free-floating exchange rate arrangement.

Bankers and money market analysts said the US-dollar purchasing moves of the banking regulator is not only helping keep dollar-taka exchange rate stable but also contributing to make its foreign exchange reserves as stronger as possible even after repayment of the upcoming ACU (Asian Clearing Union) liabilities of $1.50 billion.

At the same time the US dollar-sourcing activities also facilitate the banks mitigate their local currency obligations as the central bank injects over Tk 121 billion in the form of procuring the US currency, according to BB sources.

A BB official said on condition of anonymity that they have bought $47.50 million on Tuesday under the Multiple Price Auction method and the cutoff was Tk 121.75 per USD. The same official said the forex deals on the interbank spot market have been slowed very recently for reasons of lower demand for foreign currencies against rising supply trend.

This phenomenon slowed down the commercial banks' forex-netting measures because they were unable to sell their already-sourced dollars on the market amid low demand, financial sources have reported. "That's why the BB came to intervene and it would help the lenders source more forex using the liquidity it injected into the banks through such purchase," sources close to Bangladesh Bank have stated.

On condition of not disclosing identity, another BB official said the government is set to clear ACU liabilities amounting to $1.50 billion by end of this week. "Despite such large payment, we're expecting that the gross reserve will stay over $30 billion-mark," according to the official.

Bangladesh Bank's data shows that the country's forex reserves rose to $31.39 billion as of September 2, 2025 from $31.19 billion recorded on August 28 last. By end of July, 2025, the figure was $29.80 billion. For reasons of the central bank's forex market intervention, the Bangladesh forex (foreign exchange) market reference rate reversed into the upward trend after days of downturn.

In light of official facts and figures, the dollar-taka reference rates were Tk 121.68 per dollar on August 28 last. Since then it started moving up riding on BB's dollar-buying drives to Tk 121.86 per dollar on September 2, 2025, the latest monetary trend displays this spectacle.