BB gears up forex support to commercial banks

Siddique Islam | Published: June 06, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

The central bank has geared up its foreign currency support to the commercial banks for settlement of fuel import bills.

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has been making such intervention to keep the country's foreign exchange market stable.

As part of the operation, the BB sold at least US$32 million at Tk 68.53 directly to three commercial banks Thursday to meet the growing demand for the greenback.

Besides, the central bank provided overdraft (OD) facilities for $25 million to a state-owned commercial bank (SCB) for settlement of its oil import bills.

"We have been providing such facilities to the banks on a priority basis to help settlement of import bills, particularly that of petroleum products and essentials, including wheat," a BB senior official told the FE.

The central bank normally makes such move to help minimise mismatch in supply and demand, he noted.

The US dollar was quoted at Tk 68.50-Tk 68.53 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market on the day, unchanged from the previous working day, market operators said.

"The central bank has provided the OD facilities to the SCB against its government approved securities," the official said, adding that Thursday's sale of dollar is the largest in recent months.

The central bank started intervention in the inter-bank foreign exchange market through selling of the US dollar in October 29 last, which also helped the local currency appreciate against the US dollar.