Written by The Banking Post
Bangladesh Bank has continued its dollar purchases from the interbank market as remittance inflows strengthened early this month, aiming to keep the taka–dollar exchange rate stable.
On Thursday, the central bank bought $196.50 million from 16 commercial banks through an interbank spot auction. The purchase was made under the Multiple Price Auction method, with the cut-off rate fixed at Tk 122.30 per dollar, officials said.
The latest intervention comes amid a sharp rise in inward remittances. Remittance inflows jumped nearly 20 per cent to $506 million during February 1–4, compared with $422 million in the same period last year.
A senior central bank official said the authority is buying dollars directly from banks to absorb the higher inflow of remittances ahead of the upcoming national election and the month of Ramadan. He added that such intervention helps maintain exchange rate stability, which supports exporters and encourages remitters.
Since July 13 last year, the central bank has purchased a total of $4.52 billion from banks under the free-floating exchange rate regime, according to official data.
The intervention has also helped strengthen the country’s foreign exchange reserves. Gross reserves rose to $33.24 billion on February 2 from $33.18 billion on January 29 under the central bank’s traditional calculation method.
Under the IMF’s BPM6 framework, reserves increased to $28.75 billion from $28.68 billion over the same period, the data showed.
