Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The central bank of Bangladesh has strengthened its foreign currency support through selling the US dollar directly to the commercial banks for settlement of import bills, officials said on Wednesday.
As part of the operation, the central bank sold US$16 million at market rate to a state-owned commercial bank (SCB) directly on the day to meet the growing demand for the greenback.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 73.55-BDT 73.65 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market on the day against BDT 73.45 –BDT 73.60 of the previous working day, market operators said.
On Tuesday, the BB sold $70 million to two SCBs to settle outstanding letters of credit (LCs) against imports of petroleum products, food grains and fertilizer, the central bank officials said.
Besides, the BB provided overdraft (OD) facilities for $ 5.0 million to a SCB on the same ground, they added.
“We’ve provided the foreign currency support to the commercial banks to settle import payment bills for essential items including food grains, fuel oils and power plant equipment,” a central bank official said.
The central bank has so far pumped in $1.111 billion directly to the commercial banks to meet such higher demand for the greenback in the current fiscal year, the BB data showed.
Such foreign currency support to the banks will continue in line with the market requirement, he said, adding that adding that the central bank is monitoring the overall market situation closely.
"We've provided nearly $900 million as OD facilities to the commercial banks, particularly to the SCBs since December 2010. Of this amount, some $433 million is still outstanding," the BB official added.
BBN/SSR/AD-01June11-8:54 pm (BST)
