BDT appreciated slightly against dollar

Bangladesh Taka (BDT) appreciated slightly against the US dollar in the last couple of days mainly due to higher flow of inward remittance ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr festival.
The US dollar was quoted at Tk 77.60 in the inter-bank foreign exchange (forex) market Thursday against Tk 77.61 in the previous working day. It was Tk 77.63 Tuesday.
"The local currency appreciated against the green back due mainly to higher inflow of remittances, the less demand for the US dollars to settle import payments and modest growth of export earnings," a senior treasury official of a leading commercial bank told the FE
He also said private sector credit from overseas sources and foreign portfolio investment have also contributed to increase the flow of foreign exchange in the market.
Bangladesh received $195.19 million as remittance between July 1 and July 4 from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad, according to the central bank statistic.
"We expect that the flow of inward remittance may touch nearly $1.40 billion by the end of this month," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.
The remittances from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad were estimated at $1.29 billion in June 2014, up by $70.54 million from the level of the previous month. In May last the remittances stood at $1.21 billion, the BB data showed.
Meanwhile, the central bank has started purchasing the US dollar from the commercial banks for the ongoing fiscal year (FY) 2014-15.
As part of the move, the BB bought $135 million from the commercial banks Thursday aiming to keep the inter-bank forex market stable through offsetting its increased supply in the market.
"We've started purchasing the greenback from the banks directly for the FY 15 to protect the interests of exporters and migrant workers by keeping the exchange rate of the local currency against the US dollar stable," the central banker explained.
The country's foreign exchange reserve rose to $21.12 billion Thursday from $20.80 billion of the previous day following the US dollar purchase.
The central bank purchased a record $5.15 billion from the banks in the FY 14 on the same ground.