Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The central bank of Bangladesh sold US$13 million more to two commercial banks on Wednesday directly to meet the growing demand for the greenback in the market.

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has extended its foreign currency liquidity support to the banks for making import payment bills liquefied natural gas (LNG), officials said.

The central bank so far sold $835 million to the banks particularly public ones during this fiscal year (FY) 2019-20 on the same ground, they added.

Talking to the BBN, a BB senior official said the central bank would continue providing such foreign currency support to the banks in line with the market requirement.

The BB has already resumed selling of the US dollar to banks directly in the last week of March after more than one month interval to keep the country’s foreign exchange market stable.

Talking to the BBN, a treasury head of a private commercial bank said the central bank is providing foreign currency support to banks for offsetting extra pressure on the market, caused by lower export earnings along with falling trend of inward remittances following the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

The private banker expects that such foreign currency assistance of the BB will continue to help in keeping the foreign exchange market stable.

BBN/SSR/AD