Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The Bangladesh Taka (BDT) has been under pressure, leading to its depreciation in recent days against the US currency mainly due to higher demand for the greenback for settlement of outstanding import letters of credit (LCs).
The BDT on Wednesday depreciated by 0.43 percent against the US dollar on a single day, following an increased demand for the US currency in the foreign exchange market to settle import payments by the commercial banks.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 77.21- BDT 77.80 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market on the day against BDT 77.14- BDT 77.20 of the previous working day, according to the central bank statistics.
The local currency depreciated by 1.38 percent against the US dollar the same day at the customer level, which also might contribute to rise in general prices further, the treasury officials said.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 80.7084 on Wednesday for selling of bills for collection (BC) to open letters of credit (LC) against imports. It was at BDT 79.6128 of the previous day, according to the statistics of Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers Association (BAFEDA).
“It’s a market correction,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said, adding that it is necessary to remove any irrational discrepancy between the inter-bank foreign exchange market rate and that is applicable at the customer level.
BBN/SSR/AD-08Dec11-10:46 am (BST)
