The inter-bank call money rate hit 9.50 per cent Thursday, the last working day before the Eid-ul-Azha, because of higher withdrawal of cash from the banks, treasury officials said.
The call rate ranged between 6.00 per cent and 9.50 per cent on the day against the previous range between 6.00 per cent and 9.25 per cent.
However, most of the deals were settled at rates varying between 8.50 per cent and 9.50 per cent, the market operators said, Financial Express reports.
The weighted average rate of the call money rose to 8.78 per cent Thursday from 8.52 per cent of the previous working day, according to the Bangladesh Bank (BB) statistics.
The total turnover in the call money market came down to Tk 80.09 billion on the day from Tk 81.84 billion Wednesday last, the BB data showed.
“The call money rate increased slightly in the last working day before the Eid festival due mainly to higher demand for cash from the banks,” a senior treasury official of a leading private commercial bank told the FE.
Most of the banks located at Motijheel, Dilkusha and other commercial places of Dhaka city witnessed long queues of people waiting mostly to withdraw money before the Eid festival.
Some clients claimed that they had to face sufferings for withdrawal of money using online payment system as a section of commercial banks refused to make such payments.
“I produced my chaque, issued by Chittagong branch of a private commercial bank, before a cash counter of Nawabpur branch of the same bank but they refused to make any payment,” a client told the FE.
He also said officials of the Nawabpur branch informed him that their management had decided not to make any online payment and advised him to collect cash from the chaque issuing branch.
Another branch of Shariah-based Islamic bank located in the old part of the capital also declined to make online payment, he added.
“We expect that the call money rate will be eased after the Eid holidays,” the treasury official said, adding that there is no liquidity shortfall in the country’s banking sector right now.
The central bank continues to provide liquidity support to the banks aiming to ease the cash money demand in the market on the twin festivals of Eid-ul-Azha and Durga Puja.
“We’ve provided liquidity support to the banks in line with their requirements to keep the money market stable on the two religious festivals,” a BB official explained.
As part of the move, the BB injected fresh funds worth Tk 102.69 billion on the day through special liquidity support to the primary dealer (PD) and non-PD banks.
On Wednesday last, the central bank provided funds worth Tk 85.98 billion through the same mechanism, the central banker added.
On the other hand, the US dollar remained almost unchanged against the local currency on the inter-bank foreign-exchange market due to lower demand for the greenback.
The dollar quoted a single rate at Tk 77.40 in the inter-bank exchange–unchanged from the previous level.
