Home ›› 26 May 2022 ›› Front
The Bangladesh Bank will hold a meeting with the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB) and the Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers’ Association (BAFEDA) today to discuss the ongoing volatility in the foreign exchange market.
A high official of the central bank said the meeting would be held at 3pm.
BAFEDA recently submitted a six-point proposal to the central bank, recommending steps to stabilise the forex market.
It recommended increasing cash incentives for remittance to 5 per cent from the existing 2.5 per cent, a periodic review of the interbank exchange rate, and necessary adjustments of the rate based on market dynamics.
The interbank exchange rate stood at Tk 87.9 per dollar on Wednesday, up from Tk 87.5 on Sunday.
Prior to that, the central bank devalued taka by 80 paisa against the dollar on May 16, the highest depreciation of the local currency in a single day.
Meanwhile, importers said they were spending Tk 94-96 per dollar to pay import bills, terming it a huge burden.
Economists say the growing import payments amid the Russia-Ukraine war and the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic created volatility in the forex market.
Letter of credit (LC) settlements rose by 49.66 per cent to $61 billion from July to March of this fiscal year, the central bank data shows. Growing import payments have put pressure on the foreign exchange market. As a result, the local currency lost its value by 3.65 per cent in the last 10 months despite the injection of dollar by the central bank.
According to the central bank, Bangladesh’s forex reserves stood at $42.32 billion on Wednesday, down from $46.15 billion on December 31 last year.
