Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The inter-bank call money rate hit 10 per cent on Monday as mounting pressure on withdrawal of cash from banks ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr festival, officials said.
The call rate ranged between 5.25 per cent and 10.00 per cent on the day against the previous range between 4.50 per cent and 8.50 per cent. However, most of the deals were settled at rates varying between 6.00 per cent and 7.00 per cent, the market operators confirmed.
"The call money moved up slightly on the day despite the central bank’s injection of fresh funds into the market to keep it stable," a senior treasury official of a commercial bank said, adding that the short-term borrowings normally increase before the Eid festival to meet the growing demand of the bank clients.
The central bank has continued providing liquidity support to the banks and non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) to ease the cash money demand in the market during the holy month of Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr.
As part of the move, Bangladesh Bank (BB) injected fresh funds worth BDT 26.95 billion at 5.50 percent on the day through auction of repurchase agreement (repo) and special liquidity support to the primary dealers.
On Sunday, the central bank injected funds worth BDT 16.825 billion using same mechanisms, the BB officials confirmed.
On the other hand, the US dollar remained almost unchanged against Bangladesh Taka (BDT) in the inter-bank foreign exchange market due mainly to a low demand for the greenback.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 69.5800-BDT 69.5850 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market Monday against BDT 69.5800 of the previous working day, the BB data showed.
BBN/SI/AD-06Sept10-8:09 pm (BST)
