The exchange rate for an American greenback jumped to Tk 112 in the unofficial (kerb) market on Tuesday, witnessing the worst-ever slide of Bangladeshi currency.
Traders of the kerb market, where out-of-bank cash dollars are sold and bought, told the UNB that in the last couple of weeks, the exchange rate of dollars increased drastically.
Abdul Malek, owner of an exchange house in Dhaka’s Motijheel, said they sold a dollar for Tk 105 on Monday.
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But it jumped up to Tk 112 on Tuesday, the highest single day increase of the greenback ever in the country, he said.
The private banks sold dollars at Tk 103 to 104 on Tuesday for foreign trading and opening LCs for imports.
On July 26 last year, the American greenback traded at Tk 84.80, meaning there has been an 11.67 per cent loss in the value of the local currency in a year.
The kerb market traders said that there had been a surge of demand in US dollars, compared to the short supply.
They said syndicates involved in dollar business are partly to blame for the chaos.
The surge happened as a large number of buyers, including tourists, small importers, students going abroad for studies and patients bound for treatment frantically looked for the greenback at the kerb market in Motijheel.
Despite the BB’s move to sell the dollar and relax policies to increase the inflow of forex in the country since June this year, the dollar market is yet to stabilise.
