Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The Bangladesh Taka (BDT) has depreciated significantly against the US dollar as the demand for the greenback grew to settle import payment obligations.
The BDT deprecated by 50 paisa in a single day in the inter-bank foreign exchange (forex) market on Tuesday, according to the market operators.
They said the US dollar was quoted at BDT 83.60 each in the inter-bank forex market on the day against BDT 83.10 of the previous working day.
Talking to the BBN, a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said such depreciation may help bring dynamism to the inter-bank market, which was almost non-functional in the last 10 months.
There were limited transactions in the inter-market spot market in recent months.
Senior treasury officials, however, said that such depreciation may not able to boost the inter-bank forex market as most of the banks are not interested in selling their US dollar at lower rate.
Besides, there is still a gap between the inflow and outflow of the foreign exchange in the market, they explained.
“We’re not bound to sell our US dollar in the inter-bank market unless NOP (Net Open Position) limit is breached,” a senior treasury official of a leading private commercial bank (PCB) told the BBN.
The NOP limit had been set by the central bank earlier.
The local currency also lost its value by five paisa for importers, which will slightly push up the prices of importable products in the market.
The exchange rate of the US dollar rose to maximum BDT 83.70 for sale of Bill for Collection (BC) selling for importers on the day from maximum BDT 83.65 of the previous working day.
The BDT may depreciate against the US dollar for remitters and exporters in the coming days after such weakening, the treasury official hinted.
BBN/SSR/AD