Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The central bank of Bangladesh on Thursday provided overdraft (OD) facilities for US$22 million to two state-owned commercial banks (SCBs) for settlement of its fuel oil and fertilizer import bills.
"The central bank has provided the foreign currency support against the government securities to the SCBs to settle import payment bills for fertilizer and petroleum products," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country's central bank, told BBN in Dhaka.
He also said the BB will continue its foreign currency support to the commercial banks mainly for making payments of fuel oils, fertilizer and food grains import.
On October 23 last, the central bank of Bangladesh also offered OD facilities for $43 million to two SCBs for settlement of its fertilizer import bills.
The BB continues its intervention in the inter-bank foreign exchange market by selling and buying US dollar directly and providing such short term facilities to the banks aiming to keep the market stable.
As part of the intervention, the central bank bought $139 million from a foreign commercial bank recently.
The BB started intervention in the market by selling the US currency directly to the authorized dealers from October 29, 2007 to keep the market steady.
The central bank has since sold $735 million to the commercial banks as part of its intervention in the market, officials confirmed.
BBN/SI/SS/AD-30October08-8:10 PM (BST)