The taka is unlikely to depreciate against the US dollar in the near future, thanks to strong performance by wage earners' remittance and exports that would offset the import-driven demand for the greenback, reports UNB.
"The exports recovered to a large extent lately and rose about 16 per cent in the last fiscal, though a little short of the target, while remittance has been robust," a high official of Bangladesh Bank told the news agency Wednesday.
He was hopeful that the exports and remittance would continue to increase in the near future.
However, the official expressed concern over the sorry state of the energy (gas) supply situation and wondered whether the exporters would be able to continue their production.
He said that a proposed shoe-manufacturing project, having advance export booking for one year, suspended implementation of the project due to gas supply apprehensions.
The central bank official said the effect of the recent deportation of the wage earners on the remittance inflow would be reflected a while later.
According to latest Bangladesh Bank figures, the country received remittance of about US$ 830 million in July this year, a record high in a single month. During July-June period of 2007-08, remittance registered 33 percent growth to US$ 7.9 billion.
The BB official said the export growth is unlikely to be affected due to the appreciation of taka against dollar in last one and half year as the exporters were yielding benefits from the weak greenback against major currencies like Euro and Pound Sterling.
The exchange market remained largely stable for a quite long time with the taka appreciating a little. However, the dollar fell by over 4 percent to an average of Tk 67 (depending on the terms of exports) at present, compared to Tk 70 plus exporters negotiated end of 2006.
A money market analyst from a foreign bank operating here said last week that there is a sign of depreciating the taka against dollar in the coming months as the market would see rising demand for the greenback to settle the increased L/Cs opened last fiscal year.
