Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The central bank of Bangladesh has stepped up its intervention in the foreign exchange (forex) market to keep the US dollar–Bangladesh Taka (BDT) exchange rate stable.
A higher inflow of remittances in recent days has prompted Bangladesh Bank (BB) to increase its purchases of US dollars from commercial banks, officials said on Thursday.
As part of the move, the central bank bought $206 million more from 15 banks through an interbank spot market auction on Thursday.
According to the latest BB data, it purchased a total of $617 million from scheduled banks during the first eight days of January 2026, compared with $1.01 billion in the entire month of December 2025.
Since July 13 last year, the central bank has directly bought $3.75 billion under the prevailing free-floating exchange rate arrangement.
“The central bank has recently strengthened our ongoing intervention in the forex market to offset the higher inflow of remittances ahead of the upcoming national polls and the holy month of Ramadan,” a senior central banker said while explaining the latest market situation.
Inward remittance inflows grew by nearly 68 per cent to $907 million during January 1–7 this year, up from $541 million in the same period last year.
“We’re purchasing US dollars from scheduled banks to maintain exchange rate stability, a move that helps preserve export competitiveness and support sustained remittance inflows,” the official said, adding that such interventions are also gradually rebuilding the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
Bangladesh’s gross forex reserves remain above the $32 billion mark even after settling US$1.53 billion in import payment obligations to Asian Clearing Union (ACU) member countries.
After payments for the November–December 2025 period, the country’s gross reserves fell to $32.40 billion on Thursday from US$33.78 billion the previous working day.
Under the International Monetary Fund’s Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6), the reserves declined to $27.84 billion from $29.19 billion.
The central bank has already remitted the funds to the ACU headquarters in Tehran, in line with existing union provisions, which require member countries to settle outstanding import bills and interest every two months.
However, commercial banks have recently seen higher US dollar availability, driven by lower import payment obligations and the upward trend in inward remittances.
BBN/SSR/AD