BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The central bank of Bangladesh has sold US$21 million to Rupali Bank Limited and Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB) directly to meet the growing demand for the greenback in the market, officials said.
“We’ve sold the US dollars to the public banks at market rate on Monday to settle their import payment obligations practically for petroleum products and other essentials,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the BBN in Dhaka on Tuesday.
He also said the central bank may provide such foreign currency support to the banks in line with the market requirement.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 79.95 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market on the day against BDT 79.90 of the previous working day, market operators said.
Under the open market operations, the BB provided $15 million to the Rupali Bank while other $06 million was received by the BKB.
Earlier on April 13 last, the two public banks received $16 million on the same ground.
The central bank recently resumed intervention in the foreign exchange market through selling the US dollar to the commercial banks directly to keep the market stable.
“The demand for the greenback in the market may ease slightly following selling of the US dollar by the BB to the banks,” a senior treasury official of a leading private commercial bank explained.
He also said the demand for the US dollar has picked up recently mainly due to higher import payment pressures particularly for capital machinery, petroleum products, consumer items and scrap vessels.
BBN/SSR/AD