Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The central bank has sold US$25 million to Sonali Bank Limited directly to meet the growing demand for the greenback, officials said
“We’ve sold the US dollars to the state-owned commercial bank (SoCB) at market rate on Monday to settle their import payment obligations practically for fuel oil,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told BBN in Dhaka.
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 79.70 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market on the day against BDT 79.68 of the previous working day, market operators said.
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 SoCB,” a senior treasury official of a leading private commercial bank explained.
He also said the demand for the US dollar picked up recently mainly due to higher import payment pressures particularly for capital machinery, petroleum products, consumer items and scrap vessels.
BBN/SSR/AD