Written by The Banking Post
Bangladesh Bank has intensified its dollar purchases from commercial banks over the past several months, aiming to keep the taka-dollar exchange rate stable and support exporters and remittance earners.
Over the nearly seven months since July 13 last year, the central bank has bought a total of $4.15 billion from banks under the free-floating exchange rate regime.
The latest intervention came on Monday, when the central bank purchased $218.50 million from 16 banks through an interbank spot auction. The dollars were bought under the Multiple Price Auction method, with the cut-off rate fixed at Tk 122.30 per dollar, officials said.
Earlier, on January 29, the central bank had bought another $55 million from five banks through a similar auction.
A senior central bank official said the purchases are meant to keep the exchange rate stable, which in turn helps facilitate export proceeds and the inflow of inward remittances. He added that the interventions are also contributing to a gradual strengthening of the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
Bangladesh’s gross foreign exchange reserves rose to $33.18 billion on January 29 from $32.62 billion on January 15, based on the central bank’s traditional calculation method.
Under the IMF’s BPM6 framework, reserves increased to $28.68 billion from $28.03 billion over the same period, according to central bank data.
