Taka depreciates against US dollar again

The Bangladesh currency depreciated maximum six paisa against the US dollar in a single-day knock Tuesday, after nearly two weeks' interval.
According to treasury officials of commercial banks, the dollar was quoted at Tk 78.70-Tk 78.76 on the inter-bank foreign exchange market Tuesday against Tk 78.70 of the previous working day.
They also said the international trading currency had been quoted at Tk 78.70 as single rate since December 29 last year.
"The demand for the US dollar increased following settlement of import-payment obligations for essential commodities and capital machinery for energy and power sector," a senior treasury official of a commercial bank told the FE.
He also said such depreciating trend of the Bangladesh Taka (BDT) against the US currency could continue in the coming days for meeting a growing demand for the greenback.
Talking to the FE, another senior treasury official said supply side of the foreign currency weakened slightly due to lower flow of inward remittance in recent months.
The country received $219.80 million as remittances between January 01 and January 06 from Bangladeshi nationals working abroad, the BB data showed.
It was estimated at $958.73 million in December last, up by $7.56 million from that of the previous month. In November 2016, the remittance was $951.37 million. It was nearly $1.31 billion in December 2015.
Lower export earnings also pushed down the flow of foreign exchange, the treasury official explained.
The country's export earnings decreased by 3.03 per cent to $3.11 billion in the month of December last from $3.20 billion a year ago, according to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) statistics.
Earlier on October 27 last, the BDT dived into a devaluation trend against the US dollar after maintaining stability for more than seven months on the inter-bank forex market.
The US dollar was quoted at Tk 78.40-Tk 78.42 on the inter-bank forex market on October 27 last against Tk 78.40 of the previous level.
Earlier on March 13 last year, the US dollar was quoted at Tk 78.40.
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