May 15th- May 19th, 2011

Bangladesh received US$ 976.14 million as inward remittances in April, comparing a record amount of US$ 1.10 billion in March, 2011. In last week, with the decreasing inflows and increasing import payments, the local currency felt more pressure against green back. With inflows slowing down and along with the demand for settlement of import bills, we feel that the US$BDT will remain under pressure next week as well. The average daily inter-bank USDBDT transaction volume was about US$ 4.44 million against US$ 48.30 million of the week before. This week's average volume is lower than that of the preceding week. US$BDT Swap market was active throughout the entire week. The average daily volume of swap transaction was around US$ 95.50 million in this week against US $82.25 million of the week before. Most of the banks kept their published foreign exchange rates bit high this week as well. The USDBDT selling rates for importers of major Foreign and Private Banks ended at 73.7500-74.3500, while US$ Buying rates from exporters were at 72.7500-73.3500 For non- commercial payments such as Tele Graphic Transfer as donations, wage earners remittance, dollar drafts etc, the average T.T Buying rate was in the range of 72.7500-73.3500 while average T.T Selling rate was at 74.2059 in the last working day. Call money market climbed up to 12.00 per cent towards the end of the week after remaining steady around 6.00per cent for the last two weeks. We expect the rates to remain at these levels next week as well. Bangladesh Bank accepted 91 days TBill of BDT 4.00 billion and 364 days TBill of BDT 2.0 billion. The cutoff yield of 91-Days T-Bill was 6.39 per cent - 6.40 per cent and 364 days TBill was 6.84 per cent - 6.95 per cent. They also accepted 5 years Govt. Treasury bond worth of BDT 5.0 billion at a yield of 8.26 per cent. Energy: Oil traded near the highest in more than a week in New York after a government report showed an unexpected drop in US crude inventories on increased refinery operating rates and supply disruptions. Futures were near $100 a barrel after climbing as much as 0.5 per cent today. The Energy Department said stockpiles slipped 15,000 barrels last week to 370.3 million.