Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The Bangladesh Bank (BB) sold US$11 million at market rate to two state-owned commercial banks (SCBs) –Sonali and Rupali—directly on Tuesday to meet the growing demand for the greenback.
“We’ve sold the foreign currency to the SCBs to settle outstanding letters of credit (LCs) against imports of petroleum products,” a senior official the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told BBN, adding that the central bank wants to minimize the mismatch between demand for, and supply of, foreign exchange in the market through providing such support to the commercial banks.
The BB has so far pumped $116 million directly to the commercial banks to meet their increasing demand for the greenback in the current fiscal year, according to the central bank statistics.
“Such liquidity support will continue in line with the market requirement,” the BB official said, adding that the central bank is monitoring the overall situation in the foreign exchange market closely.
BBN/SSR/AD-12Oct11-10:52 am (BST)
