Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)-The central bank of Bangladesh on Wednesday provided overdraft (OD) facilities for US$64 million more to two state-owned commercial banks (SCBs) for settlement of its oil import bills.
“We’ve provided the OD facilities to the SCBs against the government approved securities to settle import payment bills for petroleum products,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank, told the BBN on the day.
On Tuesday, the BB provided OD facilities of $10 million to a SCB for settlement of its fuel oil import bills and Hajj flight renting.
The official also said the central bank will continue its foreign currency support to the commercial banks mainly for making payments of fuel oils, fertilizer and food grains.
The BB has continued its intervention in the inter-bank foreign exchange market by selling and buying US dollar directly and providing such short term facilities to the banks aiming to keep the market stable.
As part of the intervention, the central bank has bought $139 million from a foreign commercial bank recently to keep the country’s inter-bank foreign exchange market stable.
On the other hand, the BB started intervention in the market by selling the US currency directly to the authorized dealers from October 29, 2007 to keep the market stable.
Since then, the central bank sold $735 million to the commercial banks as part of its intervention in the market, officials confirmed.
BBN/SI/SS/AD-15October08-6:06 PM (BST)
