US Dollar File photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The central bank of Bangladesh has sold US$18 million more to seven commercial banks to meet the growing demand for the greenback in the market.
“We’ve sold the foreign currency to the banks on Monday to at market rate settle outstanding letters of credit (LCs) against imports particularly fuel oil, food grains and capital machinery for power sector,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the BBN in Dhaka.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 82.96 in the inter-bank forex market on the day against BDT 82.94 of the previous working day, according to the market operators.
The central bank of Bangladesh has resumed giving the support in the recent months through selling the US currency to the banks directly to keep the market stable.
A total of $1.45 billion was sold to the commercial banks since July 01 of this fiscal year, 2017-18, as part of its ongoing support, according to BB’s latest data.
The central bank may continue providing such foreign currency support to the banks in line with the market requirement, the BB official hinted.
Bangladesh’s forex reserve rose to $33.26 billion on Monday from $33.23 billion of the previous level despite selling the US dollar to the banks.
“Higher inflow of remittance along with overseas development assistance has contributed to boost the forex reserve,” another central banker explained.
Bangladesh received $933.79 million as remittance between February 01 and February 23 from its nationals working abroad, according to the BB statistics.
The amount of remittance from the Bangladeshi expatriates was $1.38 billion in January 2018, up by $215.97 million than that of the previous month. In December 2017, the amount was $1.16 billion.
BBN/SSR/AD