BB sells $15m to twoSCBs at market rate

Bangladesh Bank (BB) has continued its foreign exchange support through selling the US dollar directly as well as providing overdraft (OD) facilities to the commercial banks for settlement of import bills. As part of the operation, the central bank sold US$15 million at market rate to two state-owned commercial banks (SCBs) directly Thursday to meet the growing demand for the greenback. The US dollar was quoted at Tk 72.73-Tk 72.88 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market on the day against Tk 72.75 -Tk 72.83 of the previous working day, market operators said. The country's foreign exchange reserve stood at $11.160 billion Thursday after the sale of $15 million by BB to the SCBs, the central bank officials said. The BB has so far pumped in $797 million directly to the commercial banks to meet the increasing demand for the greenback in the current fiscal year, according to the central bank statistics. "We're providing the foreign currency support to the commercial banks to settle outstanding letters of credit (LCs) against imports of essential items including food grains, fuel oils and rental power plant equipment," a BB senior official told the FE. He also said the central bank wants to minimise the mismatch between demand for, and supply of, foreign exchange in the market through providing such supports to the commercial banks. Besides, the BB has provided OD facilities for $15 million to the same SCBs on the same day on the same ground, the central bank official said. "We've provided around $870 million as OD facilities to the commercial banks, particularly to the state-owned commercial banks since December last year. Of this amount, some $500 million is still outstanding," another BB official said. "Such operation will continue in line with the market requirement," he said, adding that the central bank is monitoring the overall foreign exchange (forex) market situation closely.