Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Bangladesh Taka (BDT) depreciated by 1.15 percent against the US dollar in a single day on Thursday following increased demand for the greenback to settle outstanding import bills by the commercial banks.
“It’s a massive depreciation of the local currency against the US dollar in a single day after introducing floating exchange rate (FER) in 2003,” a senior treasury official of a leading private commercial bank told BBN in Dhaka.
He also said the rate of US dollar in the inter-bank foreign exchange market jumped to a maximum of BDT 78.60 on the day due to heavy buying pressure from the commercial banks.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 78.20- BDT 78.60 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market on the day against BDT 77.21- BDT 77.80 of the previous working day, according to the central bank statistics.
The treasury official also said such depreciation of the BDT will facilitate the country’s export businesses as well as encourage Bangladeshi nationals working abroad for remitting their hard earnings.
The local currency depreciated by 0.42 percent against the US dollar the same day at the customer level, which also might further ignite inflationary fuel, they added.
The average exchange rate of US dollar rose to BDT 80.4923 for bills for collection (BC) on Thursday from BDT 80.1578 on the previous day, according to the statistics of Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers Association (BAFEDA).
BBN/SSR/AD-09Dec11-12:15 am (BST)
