BB sells US$24m to four commercial banks
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Siddique Islam
The central bank has started intervention in the foreign exchange market through selling the US dollar to the commercial banks more than one year back aiming to keep the market stable, officials said.
As part of the intervention, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) sold US$24 million at market directly to four commercial banks Tuesday to meet the growing demand for the greenback.
The US dollar was quoted at Tk 69.9350-Tk 70.1000 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market on the day against Tk 69.8300-Tk 69.9000 of the previous working day, market operators said.
"We may continue such intervention to keep the forex market stable," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Tuesday, adding that the central bank is monitoring the country's overall forex market situation closely.
The BB's latest move came after depreciating Bangladesh taka (BDT) marginally by 0.54 per cent against the US dollar following a rise in demand for the greenback in the market.
The BDT has been depreciating from the first working day of the last week mainly due to increasing the demand for greenback in the inter-bank market for settlement of import payments.
The US dollar was traded at Tk 69.6300-Tk 69.6500 on September 19 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market, treasury officials confirmed.
"The demand for greenback picked up recently mainly due to higher import payment pressures particularly for essential items including petroleum products and capital machinery," a senior treasury official of a commercial bank said.
The country's overall import recorded a significant rise in August over the previous month of this calendar year due mainly to increase food grains imports.
Opening of letters of credit (LCs) against imports, generally known as import orders, increased by 21 per cent during the period over the previous month while the settlement of LCs, generally known as actual imports, also jumped by over 35 per cent.
The import LCs worth $3.057 billion were opened in August compared to $2.526 billion in July this year while the LCs against imports worth $2.375 billion were settled in August 2010 against $1.753 billion in July last, the BB's data showed.
The treasury official also said declining inflow of remittances after the Eid festival has also pushed the demand for US dollar in the market.
On the other hand, the inter-bank call money rate eased slightly in the range between 3.50 per cent and 5.00 per cent on the day due to increased inflow of fresh fund into the market.
The central bank has started intervention in the foreign exchange market through selling the US dollar to the commercial banks more than one year back aiming to keep the market stable, officials said.
As part of the intervention, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) sold US$24 million at market directly to four commercial banks Tuesday to meet the growing demand for the greenback.
The US dollar was quoted at Tk 69.9350-Tk 70.1000 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market on the day against Tk 69.8300-Tk 69.9000 of the previous working day, market operators said.
"We may continue such intervention to keep the forex market stable," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Tuesday, adding that the central bank is monitoring the country's overall forex market situation closely.
The BB's latest move came after depreciating Bangladesh taka (BDT) marginally by 0.54 per cent against the US dollar following a rise in demand for the greenback in the market.
The BDT has been depreciating from the first working day of the last week mainly due to increasing the demand for greenback in the inter-bank market for settlement of import payments.
The US dollar was traded at Tk 69.6300-Tk 69.6500 on September 19 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market, treasury officials confirmed.
"The demand for greenback picked up recently mainly due to higher import payment pressures particularly for essential items including petroleum products and capital machinery," a senior treasury official of a commercial bank said.
The country's overall import recorded a significant rise in August over the previous month of this calendar year due mainly to increase food grains imports.
Opening of letters of credit (LCs) against imports, generally known as import orders, increased by 21 per cent during the period over the previous month while the settlement of LCs, generally known as actual imports, also jumped by over 35 per cent.
The import LCs worth $3.057 billion were opened in August compared to $2.526 billion in July this year while the LCs against imports worth $2.375 billion were settled in August 2010 against $1.753 billion in July last, the BB's data showed.
The treasury official also said declining inflow of remittances after the Eid festival has also pushed the demand for US dollar in the market.
On the other hand, the inter-bank call money rate eased slightly in the range between 3.50 per cent and 5.00 per cent on the day due to increased inflow of fresh fund into the market.