How much does a dollar cost in South Asian countries?

Among the South Asian countries Sri Lankan rupee has the lowest value as $1 equals to Rs360.75. 

Pakistan has the second lowest value as Rs208.75 equals to $1.

Whereas, Bangladesh stands somewhere in the middle with each dollar costing Tk92.80, shows a chart of the exchange rates in different south Asian countries published by Datawrapper.com.

Also, 1$ equals to 78 Indian rupees.

Maldives' currency is the strongest as $1 costs only 15.39 Rufaiyaa.

Meanwhile, 1$ costs 125.22 rupee in Nepal, 89.70 Afghani in Afghanistan and 79.30 Ngultrum in Bhutan.

In Bangladesh, the demand for dollars rose due to an increase in imports. To ease pressure, the Bangladesh Bank released $5.11 billion to banks till 12 May. In Fiscal Year 21, the central bank had purchased around $8 billion from banks.

In the meantime, forex reserves are facing pressure because of a rise in imports in post-pandemic times and higher payments for those due to a rise in prices in the international market amid the Russia-Ukraine war.

The country's reserves, which reached $48 billion in August last year, dropped to $41.38 billion in June this year.

Widening rate differentials in favour of the United States have boosted the greenback's appeal while reduced long positions have also helped traders to pile on the long dollar trade.

Traders own just 12 billion dollars, which is roughly one quarter of the record long established at the start of the last US tightening cycle in 2015.

In early January, the central bank raised the dollar's exchange rate by 20 paisa to Tk86. Since then, the taka has only weakened against the dollar. Following this, on 23 March, dollar traded for Tk86.20, on 27 April Tk86.45, on 9 May Tk86.70, on 16 May Tk87.50, on 23 May Tk87.90 and on 30 May taka dropped down to Tk89 against the dollar.

In the July-March period of FY22, exports registered about 33% growth, but the trade deficit slid to $25 billion, which was 9% higher than the previous fiscal year.