Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Bangladesh Taka (BDT) appreciated continuously against the US dollar in the recent months despite the central bank intervention in the forex market.
The local currency appreciated by 0.90% against the greenback in the first 38 days of the current calendar year, thanks to lower import payments and higher growth of inward remittance, according to the BB officials and bankers.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 79.02-BDT 79.05 in the inter-bank forex market on Thursday against BDT 79.7500 on January 1, 2013.
"The ongoing downward trend of BDT/US$ may continue in the first quarter of this calendar year," a senior treasury official of a foreign commercial bank said, adding that there was no indication for the demand to pick up for overall import immediately.
The country's overall import orders have increased slightly in December last over the previous month as a significant number of letters of credit (LCs) for scrap vessels were opened, the BB officials.
Opening of LCs against imports, generally known as import orders, increased by 3.10 per cent to US$2.827 billion in December 2012 from $2.742 billion in the previous month, the BB data showed.
On the other hand, the settlement of LCs, generally known as 'actual imports', declined by 3.29 per cent during the period under the review over the previous month of last calendar year.
The country's actual import payments came down to $2.543 billion in the month of December last from $2.630 billion previously, the BB officials added.
The overall export earnings increased by over 7.0 per cent to $12.60 billion in the July-December period of the FY `13 compared to $11.775 billion in the correspondent period of the earlier fiscal, the official data showed.
On the other hand, the country received $8.716 billion as remittance during the July-January period of the FY `13, registering nearly a 20 per cent growth over the same period in the previous fiscal.
BBN/SSR/AD-08Feb13-8:36 pm (BST)
