Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The central bank sold US$ 50 million at market rate to two state-owned commercial banks (SCBs)—Sonali and Agrani-- directly on Tuesday to meet the growing demand for the greenback.
"The central bank has provided the foreign currency support to the SCBs to settle outstanding letters of credit (LCs) against imports of fuel oils," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told BBN, adding that such operation will continue in conformity with the need of the market.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 76.48-BDT 76.51 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market on the day against BDT 76.48 of the previous working day, according to the central bank statistics.
The country's foreign exchange reserve stood at $9.62 billion on Tuesday after the sale of $50 million by the central bank to the SCBs, the central banker added.
The central bank has so far pumped in $306 million directly to the commercial banks to meet their increasing demand for the greenback in the current fiscal year, the BB data showed.
Besides, the central bank provided overdraft (OD) facilities worth $25 million to a SCB on the same day on the same ground, the BB official said, adding that the amount of outstanding OD facilities stood at $356 million.
BBN/SSR/AD-16Nov11-11:18 am (BST)