Dhaka, May 25 -- The foreign currency reserves have dropped below $30 billion again, two weeks after they slipped down the mark for the first time in almost seven years.

Bangladesh Bank data updated on Thursday showed the reserves stood at $29.96 billion.

After the end of April, the reserves were $30.96 billion, down from $41.82 billion a year ago.

After the government paid off $1.1 billion in import bills to the Asian Clearing Union, or ACU, for March and April, the reserves fell to $29.7 billion on May 8.

The last time the reserves were below $30 billion before that was in June 2016.

Continued efforts to curb imports for saving dollars have led to a fall in the amount of letters of credit every month.

On an average, Bangladesh is ...