BB buys $560m from banks last month

The central bank purchased more than US$560 million from banks in September to help keep the inter-bank foreign exchange (forex) market stable before and after the Eid-ul-Azha festival, officials said.
"We've bought more US currency from the banks directly in the month of September last compared to the previous month for maintaining a balance between supply and demand as inflow of the foreign currency increased due to the Eid ", a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.
Purchase of the US currency by the central bank from the banks rose to $561 million in September last from $337 million in August 2015, according to the central bank's latest statistics.
The supply side of the foreign currency improved significantly during the period under review due to higher inflow of remittances along with steady growth in export earnings, the central banker explained.
Bangladesh received $1.22 billion as remittances between September 01 and September 25 from Bangladeshi nationals living and working abroad, the BB data showed.
"We're purchasing the US dollar from the banks continuously to protect the interests of exporters and migrant workers by keeping the exchange rate of local currency against the greenback stable," the BB official noted.
As part of the move, the central bank bought $60 million from five commercial banks Wednesday at market rate.
The US dollar was quoted at Tk 77.80 in the inter-bank forex market on the day unchanged from the previous level, market operators said.
"Such purchase also helps the banks to comply with the net open position (NOP) rules for holding foreign exchange properly," another BB official said.
A total of $1.77 billion was bought from the commercial banks between July 2 and September 30 of the current fiscal year (FY) 2015-16 for offsetting its increased supply to the market.
The central bank bought $3.76 billion from the commercial banks in the last financial year.
In FY'14 and FY'13, the central bank had bought $5.15 billion and $4.54 billion respectively.
"The central bank may continue buying of the US dollar from the banks in line with the market requirement," the BB official hinted.
The country's foreign exchange reserve rose to $26.38 billion Wednesday from $26.35 billion of the previous day following US dollar purchase.
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