FROM PAGE B1

exchange rate stood at Tk 84.80 on May 9 last year.

The country’s import payments increased 44 per cent year-on-year to $61.5 billion in the first nine months of the current fiscal year. Exports grew 33 per cent to $36.6 billion during the period.

Against the backdrop, the trade deficit rocketed to an all-time high of $24.90 billion between July and March.

The central bank is also injecting greenbacks into the market at a large volume to support banks such that they can settle import payments smoothly. It has so far sold around $5 billion this fiscal year.

Still, it has failed to keep the foreign exchange market stable.

The central bank bought a record volume of US dollars, amounting to $7.93 billion, from local banks in the last fiscal year when imports plummeted amid the coronavirus pandemic. This boosted the country’s foreign exchange reserves, which stood at more than $48 billion in August last year.

But the higher-than-expected import payments are now squeezing the reserves as it fell to $44 billion on April 30.

The reserves will fall further as the country is scheduled to make import payments to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), an arrangement by which participating countries settle payments for intra-regional transactions.

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are members of the Tehran-headquartered ACU, which was established in 1974.