BBN file photo
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The exchange rate of the Bangladesh Taka (BDT) depreciated significantly against the US dollar in the last week mainly due to higher demand for the greenback for settling the import bills.
The local currency depreciated by 17 poisha in the country’s inter-bank foreign exchange (forex) market during the period under review after more than a month.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 84.12 each in the inter-bank forex market on Thursday against BDT 83.95 on February 10.
The local currency faced such depreciation although the central bank sold $122 million to the commercial banks particularly public ones for keeping the forex market stable.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has sold the US dollar to the public banks for making import payments, particularly for fuel-oils, fertilizer, LNG (liquefied natural gas) and capital machinery for power plants.
The central bank is continuously providing such foreign currency support to the banks for making import payment obligations against the essential items in the recent months.
A total of $1.61 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.
On January 03, the local currency depreciated by five poisha against the greenback in the inter-bank forex market on the same ground.
The greenback was quoted at BDT 83.95 each in the market on the day against BDT 83.90 of the previous working day.
During the period under review, the exchange rate of BDT depreciated by 25 poisha against the US currency at customer level for settling import bills.
The exchange rate of the US dollar rose to maximum BDT 84.20 each for sale of Bill for Collection (BC) on Thursday from maximum BDT 83.95 a week ago.
BBN/SSR/AD