Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The central bank of Bangladesh has sold US$20 million more to eight commercial banks to meet the growing demand for the greenback in the market.
Taking to the BBN, a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said the central bank sold the foreign currency to the banks on Monday at market rate to settle import payment bills.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 82.98 in the inter-bank forex market on the day unchanged from the previous level, according to the market operators.
He also said the BB may continue providing such foreign currency support to the banks in line with the market requirement.
The central bank of Bangladesh has resumed giving the support in the recent months through selling the US currency to the banks directly to keep the market stable.
A total of $1.85 billion was sold to the commercial banks since July 01 of this fiscal year, 2017-18, as part of its ongoing support, according to BB’s latest data.
The market operators, however, said that the demand for the US dollar is increasing gradually, mainly due to higher import payments pressure, particularly of capital machinery, petroleum products, and consumer items including food grains.
Bangladesh’s overall imports grew by 13.39 in the first eight months of the FY 2017-18, mainly due to higher import of food grains, industrial raw materials and fuel oils.
Actual import in terms of settlement of LCs rose to US$ 33.84 billion during the July-February period in the FY 18 from $ 29.84 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
BBN/SSR/AD