The central bank has recently resumed purchasing the US dollar from the banks after an interval of nearly two months because of lower demand for the greenback in the market, officials said on Thursday.
"We've started buying the US dollar again from the commercial banks to keep the inter-bank foreign exchange (forex) market stable," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.
As part of the move, the central bank directly bought US$25 million from two private commercial banks (PCBs) at market rate on Thursday.
The US dollar was quoted at Tk 78.70-Tk 78.72 in the inter-bank forex market on the day against Tk 78.75 of the previous working day, according to the market operators.
The BB resumed purchasing the US dollar from the banks on December 10 to protect the interests of exporters and migrant workers by keeping the exchange rate of the local currency (BDT) against the greenback stable, the central banker explained.
After resuming purchase of the US dollar, the central bank bought $65 million from the banks in three working days since December 10. It was $127 million in October 2015.
Lastly, BB bought $40 million from three banks at Tk 77.80 on October 13, a senior treasury official of a commercial bank said.
The treasury official also said a significant amount of import payment was cleared in November 2015 after depreciation of the local currency against the greenback as pre-payments to avoid possible exchange loss by the importers.
Talking to the FE, another BB official said the central bank may continue purchasing the US dollar from the banks in the near future also on the basis of market requirement.
"The supply side of the foreign currency has improved recently due to lower import payment obligations."
Falling trend of commodity prices, including those of petroleum products, in the global market has helped to ease the overall import payment pressures recently, he explained.
"A steady growth in export earnings and inward remittances has also contributed to improving the supply side of the foreign currency," the central banker added.
A total of $1.96 billion was bought from the commercial banks between July 2 and December 17 of the current fiscal (FY), 2015-16, as part of the central bank's intervention in the market.
The country's foreign exchange reserve rose to $27.26 billion on Thursday from $27.04 billion of the previous day, following the US dollar purchase.
The central bank bought $3.76 billion from the commercial banks in the last FY. It bought $5.15 billion and $4.54 billion in FY 14 and FY 13 respectively.
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