Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The inter-bank call money rate was stable on Monday despite withdrawal pressure ahead of the Eid-ul Fitr festival, treasury officials said.
The call rate ranged between 18.00 percent and 20.00 percent on the last working day before the Eid festival against the previous day's range between 15.00 percent and 20.00 per cent. However, most deals were settled at 20.00 percent, the market operators said.
"The call money rate was stable on the day following injection of fresh funds into the market by the central bank," a senior treasury official of a leading private commercial bank told the BBN in Dhaka.
In 2010, the call money rate has ranged between 4.0 percent and 7.00 percent in the last working day before the Eid-ul-Fitr festival, the treasury official added.
He also said the short-term borrowings normally increase before the Eid festival to meet the growing demand for cash from the bank clients.
The central bank of Bangladesh has continued providing liquidity support to the commercial banks to meet higher demand for cash during the holy Ramadan and Eid-ul Fitr.
As part of the move, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) injected fresh funds worth BDT 78.4572 billion at 6.75 percent on Monday through auction of repurchase agreement (repo) and special liquidity support to the primary dealers (PDs).
The central bank earlier selected 15 PDs - 12 banks and three non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) - to deal in government securities in the secondary market.
Besides, the BB provided BDT 11.20 billion as special repo facility to the banks with the rate of interest ranging between 8.75% and 8.80%.
BBN/SSR/AD-29Aug11-6:15 pm (BST)