BB purchases $17m more from five PCBs to keep market stable

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The central bank purchased $17 million more Wednesday from five private commercial banks (PCBs) to keep the interbank foreign exchange market stable.

'We've bought the US dollars from the PCBs at Tk 68.92 per unit to help the banks comply with the net open position (NOP) rules on maintaining the foreign currency fund,' a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.

The US dollar was quoted at Tk 68.92-Tk 68.96 in the interbank foreign exchange market on the day against Tk 68.90 -Tk 68.96 of the previous working day.

The central bank continues its intervention in the interbank foreign exchange market through selling and buying of the US currency directly and providing overdraft (OD) facilities to the banks aiming to keep the market stable.

On February 24 last, the central bank similarly purchased $12.00 million from two PCBs on the same ground, officials said.

The BB started the intervention in the market by buying the US currency directly from the commercial banks on January 15 last to keep the market steady.

Since then, the BB has bought $241.20 million from commercial banks as part of its intervention in the market, they confirmed.

Meanwhile, the foreign exchange flow has increased in the market because of a downward trend in opening letters of credit (LCs) against imports recently, market operators said.

The country's overall LC opening for imports dropped by 16.62 per cent in February last compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

Import LCs worth $1.698 billion were opened during February against $2.038 billion of the corresponding period of the previous year, according to the central bank statistics.