Taka once again devalued against dollar
One USD now costs Tk93.45
Taka was devalued further by Tk0.50 against the US dollar to Tk93.45 on Tuesday amid an ongoing crisis of the foreign currency owing to a soaring trade deficit and declining remittance inflows.
The inter-bank exchange rate stood at Tk92.95 on Monday.
"The central bank today supplied $42 million to banks at the new rate. A total of $103 million has been sold to various banks this month," Sirajul Islam, executive director and spokesperson of the Bangladesh Bank, told The Business Standard (TBS) on Tuesday.
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A senior central bank official said, "Bangladesh Bank is trying its best to keep the dollar rate under control. However, the global situation can no longer be denied."
"Import expenditure has increased while remittance inflow has declined. Thus, efforts are being made to manage the situation by selling dollars from the reserves," he said.
In the current fiscal year, the Bangladesh Bank has injected more than $7.5 billion into the market and the country's foreign exchange reserves have fallen below 42 billion.
Meanwhile, banks are still facing a shortage of the American greenback, according to treasury officials of several banks.
Banks had to pay up to Tk99 for a dollar from money exchange houses on Tuesday. That is why the price of the dollar was higher for LC settlements, they said.
The head of the treasury department of a leading private bank in the country, who did not want to be named, told TBS that the heads of the treasury departments of all the banks had earlier agreed not to pay more than the rate set by Bangladesh Bank when buying dollars from exchange houses. However, many banks may not abide by this decision.
He said, "I could not get dollars from any exchange house at the rate of Tk93.45 set by Bangladesh Bank today. An exchange house offered me a rate of Tk98.50 but if we buy dollars at this rate we have to face questioning, so I didn't buy any."
However, the price of the dollar is witnessing a slight fall in the open market with a devaluation of Tk0.40 in a day. Money changers in Motijheel, Paltan, and Baitul Mukarram areas of the capital sold dollars at the rate of Tk97.50-97.60 and bought at Tk97-97.20 on Tuesday.
On Monday, the dollar was bought at Tk97.60 and sold at Tk98 on the curb market.
