Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The inter-bank call money rate is unlikely to rise ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha because of having excess liquidity with most of banks, treasury officials said.
The call rate ranged between 5.25 per cent and 6.50 per cent on Tuesday unchanged from the previous level. However, most of the deals were settled at rates varying between 5.50 per cent and 6.0 per cent, they added.
“More than 10 commercial banks are still facing excess liquidity burden because of lower credit demand recently following declining trend of commodities, including fuel oils prices in the global market,” a senior treasury official of a leading private commercial bank explained told BBN in Dhaka.
The private banker also said the call money rate is unlikely to rise ahead of the Eid festival despite higher withdrawal of cash from the banks.
Such short-term borrowings normally increase before Eid to meet the growing demand for money from the banks, according to the banker.
Talking to the BBN, a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said the overall excess liquidity with the commercial banks stood at around BDT 1.20 trillion as of August 15 last but major portion of the funds has been invested in the risk-free government securities.
He also said the excess reserve, generally known as excess over daily minimum cash reserve requirement (CRR) with the central bank, stood at around BDT 37 billion.
On the other hand, the central bank decreased withdrawal of excess fund from the market through reserve REPO (repurchase agreement) auction Monday to keep the call money rate stable.
The central bank of Bangladesh withdrew BDT 69.33 billion at 5.25 per cent from the market through reserve REPO auction Monday. It was BDT 78.44 billion Sunday.
“We’re using our monetary instruments efficiently to keep both money and foreign exchange market stable,” the BB official said explained.
BBN/SSR/AD