Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The central bank of Bangladesh has sold US$15 million more to six commercial banks to meet the growing demand for the greenback in the market.
“We’ve sold the foreign currency to the banks on Tuesday at market rate to settle outstanding letters of credit (LCs) against imports particularly fuel oil, food grains and capital machinery,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the BBN in Dhaka.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 82.90 in the inter-bank forex market on the day unchanged from the previous working day, according to the market operators.
The central bank of Bangladesh has resumed providing the foreign exchange support in the recent months through selling of the US currency to the banks directly to keep the market stable.
A total of $1.31 billion was sold since July 01 of this fiscal year, 2017-18, to the commercial banks as part of its ongoing support, according to BB’s latest data.
The demand for the US dollar is gradually increasing, mainly due to higher import payments pressure, particularly of capital machinery, petroleum products and consumer items including food grains.
BBN/SSR/AD
