Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Bangladesh’s foreign exchange (forex) market eased slightly on Wednesday following an increasing trend of both inward remittance and export earnings, bankers said.
“Rising trend of export earnings and higher inflow of remittance have contributed to improve supply of the foreign exchange in the market in the last couple of days,” a senior treasury official of a commercial bank told BBN in Dhaka.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 77.8500 in the forex market on the day against BDT 77.8450 in the previous working day.
On the other hand, the rate of greenback for BC (bills for collection) selling at customer level came down to maximum BDT 78.85 on Wednesday from BDT 79.20 on December 1 last. It was 78.00 on November 11 this year.
The flow of inward remittances increased by nearly 15 per cent to US$1.17 billion in November 2014 from $1.02 billion in the previous month of the same calendar year, according to the central bank statistics.
On the other hand, overall export earnings picked up by 23.49 per cent to $2.42 billion in November last from $1.96 billion in October 2014.
“Higher inflow of foreign exchange has helped to ease the rate of the US dollar for BC selling at customer level,” the treasury official explained.
Besides, selling of the US dollar by the central bank to the commercial banks directly has contributed to ease the market, he added.
Earlier on November 24 this year, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) resumed intervention in the foreign exchange market through selling the US dollar to the commercial banks directly after nearly two years and a half to keep the market stable.
As part of the move, the central bank has so far sold $228 million to the commercial banks to meet the growing demand for the greenback.
“The central bank may continue such intervention in line with the market requirement,” a BB senior official hinted.
The demand for the US dollar had picked up mainly due to higher import payment pressures particularly for petroleum products, fertiliser, capital machinery and scrap vessels.
Besides, over $100 million was paid in the last week for Padma Bridge that has created an additional pressure on the forex market, the bankers added.
BBN/SSR/AD-11Dec14-12:25 pm (BST)