Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The inter-bank call money rate increased slightly Thursday as increasing withdrawal pressure of cash from the banks ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr festival, officials said.
The call rate ranged between 5.25 per cent and 8.25 per cent on the day against the previous range between 5.25 per cent and 8.00 per cent. Most of the deals were settled at rates varying between 6.0 per cent and 6.50 per cent, the market operators said.
"The call money rate increased 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 leading commercial bank told the FE.
He also said the pressure for withdrawal of cash from the banks may increase further on Sunday, the last working day, ahead of the Eid festival.
Most branches of the banks, especially at Motijheel, Dilkusha and other commercial hubs of the capital, witnessed long queues of people to withdraw money on the day.
Meanwhile, total turnover in the market came down to BDT 67.53 billion on the day from BDT 68.41 billion of the previous working day, according to the central bank statistics.
"We're injecting fresh fund to the commercial banks using different monetary instruments including repurchase agreement (repo) auction aiming to keep the money market stable," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told BBN in Dhaka.
He also said such injection of fund will be continued in line with the market requirement.
As part of the move, the central bank injected fresh funds worth BDT 17.76 billion on the day through auction of repo and special liquidity support to the primary dealers (PDs) and non-PD banks.
On July 23 last, the BB injected funds worth BDT 1.84 billion using same mechanisms, the central banker added.
BBN/SSR/AD-24July14-10:21 pm (BST)