BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The exchange rate of Bangladesh Taka (BDT) depreciated further against the US dollar on Monday mainly due to higher demand for the greenback for settling the import bills.
The local currency depreciated by 10 poisha in the inter-bank foreign exchange (forex) market on the day after more than 20 days, the market operators said.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 84.45 each in the inter-bank forex market on the day against BDT 84.35 of the previous working day, they said.
The local currency depreciated by 55 poisha against the greenback in the inter-bank forex market from January 03 to April 29.
On the other hand, the US currency depreciated by eight poisha at customer level on Monday on the same ground.
The banks quoted the US dollar at maximum BDT 84.48 each for sale of Bill for Collection (BC) on the day against BDT 84.40 of the previous working day.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) sold US$87 million to the commercial banks particularly public ones in the last week for keeping the forex market stable. It was $55 million in the previous week.
The central bank of Bangladesh is continuously providing such support to the banks for making import payments, particularly for fuel-oils, fertilisers, LNG (liquefied natural gas), and capital machinery for power plants.
A total of $2.08 billion has been sold since July 01 of the current fiscal year (FY), 2018-19, to the commercial banks as part of BB’s ongoing support, according to latest official figures.
The central bank may continue providing such foreign currency support to the banks in line with the market requirement, a senior BB official hinted.
BBN/SSR/AD