Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The central bank sold US$54 million at market rate to the state-owned Agrani Bank Limited directly on Monday to meet the growing demand for the greenback.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 73.80 – BDT 74.20 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market on the day against BDT 73.35 – BDT 73.80 of the previous working day, market operators said.
“The central bank has sold the foreign currency to the stat-owned commercial bank (SCB) to settle outstanding letters of credit (LCs) against imports of petroleum products,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the BBN in Dhaka.
He also said 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.
“Such liquidity support will continue in line with the market requirement,” the central banker said, adding that the central bank is monitoring the overall foreign exchange market situation closely.
Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserve stood at $10.97 billion on Monday after the sale of $54 million by BB to the SCB, the central bank officials said.
The central bank of Bangladesh has so far pumped in $85 million directly to the commercial banks to meet the increasing demand for the greenback in the current fiscal year, according to the central bank statistics.
BBN/SSR/AD-29Aug11-7:33 pm (BST)
