Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The inter-bank call money rate hit 15 per cent Tuesday as withdrawal of cash from banks gathered pace ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr festival, officials said.
The call rate ranged between 12.00 percent and 15.00 per cent on the day against the previous range between 6.75 per cent and 12.00 per cent.
However, most of the deals were settled at rates varying between 13.00 percent and 14.00 percent, the market operators confirmed.
“The call money moved up slightly on the day despite the central bank’s injection of fresh funds into the market to keep it stable,” a senior treasury official of a commercial bank told the BBN in Dhaka.
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 has been providing liquidity support to the banks to ease the pressure on the market during the holy month of Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr.
As part of the move, the central bank injected fresh funds worth BDT 80.6488 billion at 6.75 percent on Sunday through auction of repurchase agreement (repo) and special liquidity support to the primary dealers (PDs).
The central bank of Bangladesh earlier selected 15 PDs – 12 banks and three non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) – to handle government securities in the secondary market.
Besides, the central bank provided BDT 6.60 billion as special repo facility to the banks with the rate of interest ranging between 8.75% and 8.80%.
BBN/SSR/AD-23Aug11-5:13 pm (BST)
