The central bank has expedited purchase of US dollars from commercial banks this month to protect the interests of both exporters and migrant workers by keeping the exchange rate of Bangladesh Taka (BDT) against the greenback stable.
“The supply side of the foreign currency has improved during the period under review due to higher inflow of remittance along with steady growth of export earnings,” Kazi Sayedur Rahman, general manager of the Forex Reserve and Treasury Management Department of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.
Bangladesh received $ 657.82 million as remittances between March 1 and March 13 from Bangladeshi workers abroad, according to the central bank’s latest statistics.
The remittances from the Bangladeshi nationals working abroad were estimated at $1.18 billion in February 2015. The amount was lower by $64.62 million than the level of remittance receipts in the previous month. In January, the remittance inflows stood at $1.24 billion.
Declining trend of petroleum products in the global market has also helped to ease the overall import payment pressures recently, the BB official explained.
“We may continue purchasing US dollars from the banks in line with the market requirement,” he said without elaborating.
The BB resumed purchasing greenbacks from the banks on January 12 last after around three months because of lower demand for the greenback in the market.
After resuming purchase of the US dollars, the central bank bought $224 million from the banks in January last. It was $304 million in February 2015.