Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The call money rate moved up slightly in early hour transactions on Wednesday while the US dollar remained also stable against the local currency in the inter-bank market.
The call rate ranged between 3.25 per cent and 4.50 per cent against 3.00 per cent and 4.50 per cent earlier. But most of the deals were made at rates between 4.0 per cent and 4.50 per cent on the day.
“It’s a signal that the inter-bank call money rate may raise slightly ahead of the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr festival,” a senior treasury official of a leading private commercial bank (PCB) told BBN in Dhaka.
He also said four state-owned commercial banks (SoCBs) are dominating in the inter-bank money market with substantial amount of excess liquidity.
“But the SoCBs are not interested to lend their funds below 4.0 per cent interest rate,” the treasury official claimed.
The volume of overall transactions in the inter-bank call money market came down to BDT 60.87 billion on Tuesday from BDT 64.48 billion of the previous working day, according to the central bank latest statistics, released on Wednesday.
On the other hand, the US dollar was quoted at BDT 80.55-BDT 80.57 unchanged from the previous level till the report was filed at 11:26 am (local time).
“The existing trend of inter-bank forex market may continue in the coming days,” another treasury official said.
He also said the local currency also remained stable against the US dollar at customer level on Tuesday.
The average exchange rate of US dollar stood at BDT 81.4679 for bill for collection (BC) on the day against BDT 81.4698 of the previous working day, according to the statistics of the Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers Association (BAFEDA).
BBN/SSR/AD