Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The central bank of Bangladesh has pumped in US$57 million dollars in the money market last week in an effort to help commercial banks pay for soaring import bills of food and essential commodities.
 “We’ll continue our foreign exchange support to the banks so that they do not face any shortages of dollars in importing essential items including food grains,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told BBN in Dhaka on Saturday.
The BB official also said the central bank has scaled up its foreign exchange support through selling the US dollar directly as well as overdraft (OD) facilities to the banks for settlement of import bills. 
The central bank sold US$57 million to the commercial banks last week alone to meet growing demand for the US currency, the central bank officials said.
They said the BB provided overdraft facilities worth US$30 million to a state-owned commercial bank on Thursday for payment of an import bill for petroleum products. 
“The central bank has provided over $700 million as overdraft facilities to the banks, particularly to the state-owned commercial banks since December last year. Of the amount, some $270 million is still outstanding,” the BB official said.
He also said the central bank has so far pumped in $699 million directly to the commercial banks to meet soaring demand for the greenback in the current fiscal year.
 
BBN/SSR/AD-12Mar11-9:24 pm (BST)