Taka weakens further against dollar

The Bangladesh Taka (BDT) weakened further against the US dollar on Thursday mainly due to higher demand for the greenback needed to defray import costs.
The local currency depreciated by seven poisha in the country's inter-bank foreign exchange (forex) market in a gap of two days, market operators said.
The US dollar was quoted at Tk 84.12 each in the inter-bank forex market on
Thursday against Tk 84.05 of the previous working day, they said.
"The exchange rate has been re-fixed in line with the market requirement," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.
The local currency depreciated for the second time last week, despite the selling US$ 37 million by the central bank to four commercial banks for keeping the forex market stable.
The central bank has sold the US dollar to four state-owned commercial banks (SoCBs) to help them make import payments, particularly for fuel-oils, fertiliser and capital machinery for power plants, the official said.
"We may continue providing such foreign currency support to the banks in line with the market requirement," the BB official hinted.
He also said the central bank continues to provide such foreign currency support to the banks for making import payment obligations against the essential items in recent months.
A total of $1.61 billion has been sold since July 01 of the current fiscal year (FY) to the commercial banks as part of the ongoing support, according to latest official figures.
On February 11, the local currency depreciated by 10 poisha against the greenback in the inter-bank forex market on the same ground.
The greenback was quoted at Tk 84.05 each in the market on the day against Tk 83.95 of the previous working day.
The central bank sold $122 million to the commercial banks last week to meet the growing demand for the greenback in the market. It was $30 million in the previous week.
"This will give a boost to exporters and remitters," a senior treasury official of a leading private bank told the FE.
He also said such depreciation will increase cost of import that might flare up inflationary pressure in the near future.
On the same day, the exchange rate of BDT depreciated by eight poisha against the US currency at the customer level.
The exchange rate of the US dollar rose to a maximum of Tk 84.20 each for sale of Bill for Collection (BC) on the day from a maximum of Tk 84.12 of the previous working day, according to the operators.
"The BDT should be depredated more against the US dollar considering the demand and supply situation in the market," the treasury official noted.
The demand for the US dollar is gradually increasing, mainly due to higher import payment pressure, particularly of capital machinery for power plants, intermediate goods, petroleum products and liquefied natural gas.

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