Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The central bank of Bangladesh has continued to provide support to the commercial banks through selling of the US dollar in the foreign exchange market to facilitate settlement of import bills, officials said on Tuesday.
"The central bank has sold US$3.0 million more at market rate to a private commercial bank directly on Tuesday to meet the growing demand for the US currency," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said.
He also said the central bank's foreign currency support to the private commercial banks is mainly purported to settling import payment bills for food grains.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 71.32-BDT 71.35 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market on the day against BDT 71.30-BDT 71.32 of the previous working day, market operators said.
On Monday, the central bank sold $25 million likewise to a state-owned commercial bank on the same ground, the BB official confirmed.
As part of the intervention, the BB has so far sold $642 million to the commercial banks to meet the growing demand for the greenback, he added.
BBN/SI/AD-02Mar11-12:58 am (BST)