The inter-bank call money rate remained stable on Thursday, the last working day before the Eid-ul-Fitr festival, despite higher withdrawal of cash from the banks, treasury officials said.
The call money rate ranged between 2.25 per cent and 4.50 per cent on the day, unchanged from the previous level. But most of the deals were settled at rates varying between 3.25 per cent and 4.50 per cent, the market operators said.
Talking to the FE, a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said the call money rate remained stable on the day despite higher withdrawal of cash from the banks ahead of the Eid festival.
He also said the weighted average of call money rate remained unchanged at 4.05 per cent. It was 3.95 per cent a week ago.
Around Tk 200 billion has been injected in the market in the last two weeks following maturity of the BB bills, according to another BB official, who also said, "We're managing the market efficiently."
Currently, the central bank is using its three bills for implementation of the monetary policy with effective liquidity management.
The bills are - 07-day Bangladesh Bank Bill, 14-day Bangladesh Bank Bill and 30-day Bangladesh Bank Bill.
However, the volume of overall transactions in the call money market increased significantly in the last week ahead of the Eid festival.
The volume of transactions in the inter-bank call money market rose to Tk 92.68 billion on Wednesday from Tk 74.74 billion on June 15, according to the central bank's latest statistics, released on Thursday.
"Call money rates normally increase before the Eid festival to meet the growing demand for cash from the banks' clients," a senior treasury official of a leading private commercial bank told the FE.
The call money rate is almost stable ahead of the Eid festival, as most of banks, particularly the state-owned commercial banks, are awash with excess liquidity, he explained.
Most of the bank branches in Motijheel, Dilkusha and other commercial areas of the capital witnessed long queues of people, waiting mostly to withdraw money before the Eid festival.
On the other hand, the US dollar remained almost unchanged against the local currency in the inter-bank foreign exchange market mainly due to lower demand for the greenback.
The US dollar was quoted at Tk 80.56-Tk 80.60 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market on Thursday, unchanged from the previous working day, the treasury official added.
siddique.islam@gmail.com
