The central bank purchased US$149 million through auction from 16 banks on the interbank spot market on Thursday, aiming to keep the exchange rate of the US dollar against the local currency stable.
The amount was bought under the Multiple Price Auction method, with a cut-off rate of Tk 122.29 per dollar, according to central bank officials.
Earlier, on December 9, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) purchased $202 million from 13 banks in a similar auction.
The BB has so far bought $2.66 billion directly from banks since July 13 under the prevailing free-floating exchange rate arrangement, the central bank's latest data showed.
"We are buying US dollars from scheduled banks to help stabilise the exchange rate, which in turn supports export earnings and remittance inflows," a senior BB official told The Financial Express while explaining the key objective behind the central bank's intervention in the foreign-exchange (forex) market.
He added that the intervention is also helping to strengthen the country's foreign exchange reserve position.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh's gross forex reserves rose to $31.89 billion on December 10 from $31.20 billion on December 1, according to the central bank's traditional calculation.
Under the International Monetary Fund's Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, sixth edition (BPM6), the reserves stood at US$27.22 billion during the same period, up from US$26.51 billion, the latest statistics showed.
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