Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserve hit all time high at US$11.25 billion on Wednesday following purchase of US dollar by the central bank from the market.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) bought US$101 million from 14 commercial banks on the day aiming to keep the inter-bank foreign exchange market stable, officials said.
"We’ve bought the US currency at market rate from the commercial banks directly aiming to keep the rate of local currency stable against the greenback," a BB senior official said, adding that such intervention would continue in line with the market demand.
The central bank continues its intervention in the inter-bank foreign exchange market through purchase of the US currency directly from commercial banks, which has pushed the foreign exchange reserve up.
A total of $301.50 million has been bought from the commercial banks, so far, in the current fiscal year as part of the central bank's intervention in the market, the BB officials confirmed.
In fiscal 2009-10, the central bank bought a total of $2.16 billion directly from the commercial banks against $1.48 billion of the previous fiscal, the BB's data showed.
The central bank official also said the foreign exchange reserve may come down slightly as the central bank is set to pay around $692 million to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) in a day or two.
Under the existing ACU provisions, settlement of any balance and the accrued interests is made among its member countries at the end of every two months.
The ACU is an arrangement among the central banks of the member countries to settle trade related payments on a multilateral basis. Its members are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
BBN/SI/AD-08Sept10-6:58 pm (BST)
