Taka falls marginally against dollar

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Bangladesh taka (BDT) depreciated marginally by 0.08 per cent against the US dollar during the last two working days despite buying of the greenback by the central bank from the commercial banks.

"The local currency has depreciated against US dollar based on the market force," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Wednesday, adding that the central bank is monitoring the foreign exchange market situation closely to keep it stable.

The US dollar was traded at Tk 68.97-Tk 68.99 in the foreign exchange market Wednesday against Tk 68.93 Sunday, officials confirmed.

On the other hand, market players said the local currency should depreciate further against the US currency to encourage the exporters and help increase the flow of inward remittances.

"The exchange rate of local currency against the US dollar will be re-fixed considering our competitors like India, Pakistan and Vietnam," a treasury official of a private commercial bank told the FE.

A senior official of a leading foreign commercial bank in Bangladesh, however, said the local currency should not move against the US dollar widely because the BDT is not convertible in capital account.

He also said Indian Rupee is more correlated with the BDT than Pakistani Rupee in terms of real effective exchange rate.