Dhaka, Sep 10 : Bangladesh has cleared 1.37 billion US dollars in bimonthly payments with the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), an arrangement for settling payments for intra-regional transactions among its members.

After the ACU payment, Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves reached 19.46 billion dollars as per calculations based on the International Monetary Fund's Balance of Payment Manual 6 as of September 8, according to the latest data of the Bangladesh Bank, the country's central bank.

According to a central bank official, Bangladesh forex reserves usually go down when the country clears ACU payments every two months.

In terms of the central bank's own calculations, the country's gross forex reserves stood at 24.53 billion dollars on September 8, Xinhua news agency reported.

The ACU payment gateway covers monetary transactions by its nine member countries, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, for regional imports.

Bangladesh is currently having an interim government led by Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus after the fall of the government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on August 5.

/IANS