The central bank has continued to purchase US dollars from the commercial banks directly aiming at keeping the inter-bank foreign exchange market stable, officials said Sunday.
“We’ve strengthened our intervention in the foreign exchange (forex) market recently to protect the interests of exporters and migrant workers by keeping the exchange rate of the local currency against the greenback stable,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the Financial Expres (FE).
He also said the BB is buying US dollars continuously from the banks to offset higher inflow of foreign exchange in the market.
As part of the move, the BB bought US$370 million from the banks between November 4 and November 21 against $585 million in October, according to the central bank statistics.
“The inflow of foreign exchange has increased recently because of lower import payments pressure, normal inflow of inward remittance and higher growth of export earnings,” the central banker explained.
A total of $2.02 billion was bought from the commercial banks between July 1 and November 21 last of the current fiscal (FY) 2013-14 as part of the BB’s intervention in the market.
He also said the central bank may continue purchasing US dollars in the near future on the basis of market requirement.
However, the country’s foreign exchange reserve stood at $17.07 billion Sunday following US dollar purchase.
“We expect that the amount of forex reserve may increase further in the coming days as we will be receiving the fourth instalment from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under its Extended Credit Facility (ECF),” another BB official told the FE.
He also said the IMF is scheduled to release around US$140 million within the first week of December.
