Taka has been devalued against the greenback yet again, as the Bangladesh Bank started selling each USD for Tk 104.5 to commercial banks on Wednesday, which is a hike from the previous rate of Tk 103.
A central bank official, on condition of anonymity, said, “Taka has been devalued to preserve the balance between market demand and supply, and to gradually adjust the exchange rate.”
On April 30, the regulator hiked the USD rate for remittance from Tk 107 to Tk 108. For export revenue, the rate was hiked by Tk 1 to Tk 106. The central bank had said the decision was made to USD flow in the banking channel.
Bangladesh has been facing a USD crisis for the last one year, and the regulator has been selling USD to banks to help them cover import bills. The Bangladesh Bank has so far sold $56 million to commercial banks for this purpose.
Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves currently stand at $30.93 billion. The country will have to pay around $1.15 billion to settle the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) bill, which will cause the reserves to dip to $29 billion.
