Central bank steps up dollar purchases

The central bank purchased more than US$4.0 billion from banks over the past nearly seven months, aiming to support exporters and remitters by keeping the dollar-taka exchange rate stable.
As part of its ongoing intervention, Bangladesh Bank (BB) bought a further $218.50 million through an auction involving 16 commercial banks in the interbank spot market on Monday, officials said.
The latest amount was purchased under the Multiple Price Auction method, with the cut-off rate set at Tk 122.30 per dollar, according to central bank officials.
Earlier, on January 29, the Bangladesh Bank bought $55 million from five banks through a similar auction.
Since July 13 last year, the banking regulator has purchased a total of $4.15 billion directly from banks under the prevailing free-floating exchange rate arrangement.
"We are purchasing US dollars from banks to keep the exchange rate stable, which helps facilitate export earnings as well as the inflow of inward remittances," a senior BB official told The Financial Express (FE) in response to a query.
He added that such intervention in the foreign exchange market is also helping to strengthen the country's foreign exchange reserves.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh's gross forex reserves rose to $33.18 billion on January 29 this year from $32.62 billion on January 15, according to the central bank's traditional calculation method.
Under the International Monetary Fund's Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, sixth edition (BPM6), reserves stood at $28.68 billion during the period under review, up from $28.03 billion, Bangladesh Bank's latest statistics show.

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