Call money rate almost stable

The inter-bank call money rate remained almost stable Thursday despite increased cash withdrawal from the banks ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr festival, officials said.
The call rate ranged between 5.25 per cent and 8.25 per cent on the day against the previous range between 5.25 per cent and 8.00 per cent.
However, most of the deals were settled at rates varying between 6.0 per cent and 6.50 per cent, the market operators said.
Most branches of the banks, especially at Motijheel, Dilkusha and other commercial hubs of the capital, witnessed long queues of people to withdraw money on the day.
Total turnover in the market came down to Tk 67.53 billion on the day, from Tk 68.41 billion of the previous working day, according to the central bank statistics.
"The call money rate increased slightly on the day despite the central bank's injection of fresh fund into the market to keep it stable," a senior treasury official of a leading commercial bank told the FE.
He also said the pressure for cash withdrawal from the banks may increase further Sunday, the last working day before the Eid vacation.
The short-term borrowings normally increase before the Eid festival to meet the growing demand for cash from the bank clients, the banker explained.
"We're injecting fresh fund to the commercial banks using different monetary instruments, including repurchase agreement (repo) auction, to keep the money market stable," an executive director of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.
He also said such injection of fund will be continued in line with the market requirement.
As part of the move, BB injected fresh fund worth Tk 17.76 billion on the day through auction of repo and special liquidity support to the primary dealers (PDs) and non-PD banks.
On July 23, the central bank injected fund worth Tk 1.84 billion using the same mechanisms, according to the BB officials.
On the other hand, the US dollar remained almost unchanged against the local currency in the inter-bank foreign exchange market, mainly due to lower demand for the greenback.
The US dollar was quoted at Tk 77.52-Tk 77.54 in the inter-bank foreign exchange market Thursday against Tk 77.53-Tk 77.54 of the previous working day, the BB data showed.