Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The central bank of Bangladesh has sold US$19 million to Sonali Bank Limited directly to meet the growing demand for the greenback in the market, officials said.
“We’ve sold the US dollars to the state-owned commercial bank at market rate on Tuesday to settle their food grains import payment obligations,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the BBN in Dhaka.
He also said the central bank may provide such foreign currency support to the banks in line with the market requirement.
The US dollar was quoted at BDT 80.64 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market on the day unchanged from the previous level, market operators said.
“The demand for the greenback in the market may ease slightly following selling of the US dollar by the BB to the public bank,” a senior treasury official of a leading private commercial bank explained.
He also said the demand for the US dollar had increased recently mainly due to higher import payment pressures particularly for food grains, capital machinery and scrap vessels.
However, the central bank has resumed intervention in the foreign exchange market through selling the US dollar to the commercial banks directly after a month to keep the market stable.
In May last, the BB sold US$21 million to the banks for settling import payment obligations.
As part of the move, the central bank has so far sold $186 million to the commercial banks this calendar year to meet the growing demand for the greenback.
BBN/SSR/AD