Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The central bank of Bangladesh has provided overdraft (OD) facilities for US$65 million more to a state-owned commercial bank (SCB) for settlement of its fuel oil, food grains and fertilizer import bills.
“We have provided the facility to the SCB against government approved securities to settle import payment bills for the essential items including petroleum products,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank, told BBN in Dhaka on Tuesday.
He also said the central bank will continue to provide foreign currency support to the commercial banks mainly for making payments of fuel oil, fertilizer and food grains purchase from overseas.
On Wednesday last week, the BB sanctioned OD facilities for $30 million to another SCB for settlement of its fuel oil import bills.
The central bank of Bangladesh has continued 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 has bought US$9.50 million from the commercial banks recently to keep the country’s forex market stable.
On the other hand, the BB started intervention in the market by selling the US currency directly to the commercial banks from October 29 last year to keep the market stable.
Since then, the central bank sold $735 million to the commercial banks as part of its intervention in the market.
BBN/SI/SI/AD-03August08-9:40 AM
