Dollar price drops to Tk108 a day after record high
Private sector banks, however, raise the price by up to Tk7 on the day
Kerb market dollar prices on Wednesday dropped by Tk4 to Tk108, a day after record high of Tk112.
Private sector banks, however, increased the cash dollar prices on the same day to the highest Tk108, while state-run ones sold the currency at the rate of Tk102-103.
Eastern Bank sold cash dollars at the rate of Tk101 on Tuesday and raised the price to Tk108 on Wednesday, while IFIC Bank charged Tk107 per dollar yesterday, according to officials concerned.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
Talking to The Business Standard, money exchange houses in the capital's Palton, Motijheel, and Baitul Mukarram areas said they started selling US dollars on Wednesday at Tk110.
With the rolling of time, the dollar price saw ups and downs and the sales closed at Tk108 at the end of the day.
The kerb market dollar prices have been on a constant rise since 21 July. On that day, it was Tk102.50 per dollar. The price increased to Tk105 on 24 July and Tk107 the next day. The cash dollar price hit an all-time high of Tk112 on Tuesday this week.
Bankers said they raised the dollar prices keeping pace with the kerb market as many people were allegedly taking advantage of the price gap by purchasing dollars at lower prices from banks and selling those at higher prices in the kerb market.
They, however, said the surge in cash dollar prices did not have any influence on settling letters of credit or encashing export payments.
Top officials of several private banks' treasury departments told TBS that banks charged the highest Tk105 per dollar in LC Settlement on Wednesday, which was almost the same as the previous day, while they offered the rate of Tk102 per dollar in export payment encashment. The officials further added that they purchased dollars from exchange houses at the rate of Tk105.50 on the day.
"We can offer dollars at low rates to those who came to us for settling LCs involving less than $1 million. In case of large payments, we have to charge higher rates as we need to collect dollars from outside then," a senior private bank official, wishing to remain unnamed, told TBS.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday sold $90 million to the banks at the interbank exchange rate of Tk94.70. With the dollar sales, the foreign reserves of the central bank stood at $39.49 billion.
The kerb market dollar rates on the day were Tk13 higher than the inter-bank exchange rate. The difference between the rates of LC settlement and the interbank exchange rate was at least Tk9.
