BBN file photo

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) -The exchange rate of Bangladesh Taka (BDT) against the US dollar in the inter-bank foreign exchange market remained almost stable in early hour transactions on Monday.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 80.53-BDT 80.55 unchanged from the previous level till the report was filed at 10:25 am (local time).
“The BDT may return into appreciating mode against the US currency shortly in the inter-bank forex market due to higher inflow of remittance and lower import payment obligations,” a senior treasury official of a leading commercial bank told BBN in Dhaka.
The flow of inward remittances jumped by nearly 17 per cent to US$ 807.77 million in the first 19 days of this month against $692.01 million in the same period of the previous month.
On the other hand, the actual import in terms of settlement of letters of credit (LCs) decreased by 6.42 per cent to US$ 3.55 billion in April from $3.79 billion in March. It was $3.02 billion in April 2016.
Such import trend might continue until June this year, he added.
However, appreciating of the local currency continued against against the US dollar at customer level on Sunday.
The average exchange rate of US dollar came down to BDT 81.4689 for bill for collection (BC) on the day from BDT 81.4858 of the previous working day, according to the statistics of the Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers Association (BAFEDA).
However, the inter-bank call money rate remained stable in the range between 3.00 per cent and 4.50 per cent on Sunday mainly due to sufficient inflow of fund into the market.
The volume of overall transactions in the inter-bank call money market came down to BDT 65.55 billion on the day from BDT 66.13 billion of the previous working day, according to the central bank latest statistics, released on Monday.

BBN/SSR/AD