Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The central bank of Bangladesh purchased US$85 million more from eight commercial banks on Thursday to help keep the inter-bank foreign exchange (forex) market stable, officials said.
“We’ve bought the US currency from the bank directly at market rate to protect the interests of exporters and migrant workers by keeping the exchange rate of the local currency against the US dollar stable,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told BBN in Dhaka.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 77.80 in the inter-bank forex market unchanged from the previous level, market operators said.
A total of $1.12 billion was bought from the commercial banks between July 2 and August 13 of the current fiscal year (FY) 2015-16 for offsetting its increased supply to the market.
“We may continue buying of the US dollar from the commercial banks in line with the market requirement,” the central banker hinted.
The BB bought $3.76 billion from the commercial banks in the last financial year.
In FY’14 and FY’13, the central bank had bought $5.15 billion and $4.54 billion respectively, the BB data showed.
Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserve rose to $25.90 billion on Thursday from $25.76 billion of the previous day after the US dollar purchase.
BBN/SSR/AD