Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The central bank of Bangladesh sold US$16 million at market rate to a state-owned Sonali Bank Limited directly on Monday to meet the growing demand for the greenback.

“We’ve sold the foreign currency to the state-owned commercial bank to settle outstanding letters of credit (LCs) against imports of petroleum products, fertilizer and food grains” a senior official of 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 $246 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.

BBN/SSR/AD-01Nov11-12:07 pm (BST)