Bangladesh Bank Headquarters
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The central bank of Bangladesh has expedited its foreign exchange support through selling the US dollar directly to the banks for settlement of import bills, officials said.
As part of the move, the central bank sold US$60 million at market rate to two banks directly on Wednesday to meet the growing demand for the greenback in the market.
"We've sold the foreign currency to the banks to settle outstanding letters of credit (LCs) against imports particularly fuel oil, food grains and capital machinery," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told BBN in Dhaka.
He also said the BB wants to minimise the mismatch between demand and supply of foreign exchange in the market through providing such support to the banks.
"Such liquidity support will continue in line with the market requirement," the BB official said, adding that the central bank is monitoring the overall foreign exchange (forex) market situation closely.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Taka (BDT) depreciated maximum at 20 paisa further against the US dollar on the day following higher demand for the greenback in the market.
The exchange rate of the BDT against the US dollar was quoted at maximum BDT 81.60 on Monday against BDT 81.40 of the previous working day, according to the market operators.
However, some banks were traded the US dollar at maximum BDT 84.50 on the day in the mane of corporate deals, they added.
The central bank has resumed providing the foreign exchange support in the recent months through selling of the US currency to the banks directly to keep the market stable.
A total of $518 million was sold since July 01 of this fiscal year, 2017-18, to the commercial banks as part of its ongoing support, according to BB’s latest data.
The market operators said the demand for the US dollar is gradually increasing, mainly due to higher import payments pressure, particularly of capital machinery, petroleum products and consumer items including food grains.
BBN/SSR/AD