Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The central bank of Bangladesh has intervened in the inter-bank foreign exchange market through selling the US dollar to the banks directly after more than a year.
As part of the move, the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank, sold US$8.0 million to a state-owned commercial bank (SoCB) on Monday to meet the growing demand for the greenback.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 78.68-BDT 78.72 on Monday against BDT 78.65 of the previous working day.
“We’ve provided the US dollar to the SoCB to settle their import payment obligations of petroleum products,” a BB senior official told the BBN in Dhaka without elaboration.
The central bank, however, did not sell any single dollar on the market in the fiscal year (FY) 2015-16, according to the BB data.
The BB sold only $357 million to the banks in the FY 15 to meet demand for the greenback on the market.
Currently, the demand for the US dollar is picking up mainly due to higher import payment pressures particularly for petroleum products, fertiliser, capital machinery, scrap vessels and other contraction related materials, according to the bankers.
They also said demand for the dollar normally rises before each calendar year ending for remitting profits of multinational companies.
BBN/SSR/AD