Dollar crosses Tk100 mark

Banks on Thursday bought dollars at a rate of more than Tk100 from the exchange houses in the country. The rate was Tk99 a day earlier.

On Tuesday, the central bank devalued Taka further by Tk0.50 against the US dollar to Tk93.45 amid an ongoing crisis of the foreign currency owing to a soaring trade deficit and declining remittance inflows.

The heads of the treasury department of several banks told TBS that most banks are suffering from a dollar shortage.

As the central bank is not providing the greenback as per the demand, banks are going to the exchange houses. Seeing a surge in demand, the exchange houses have hiked the price, the treasury officials said.

Meanwhile, banks have also increased the price of the dollar in letter of credit (LC) settlements. On Thursday, most banks settled LCs at a rate of more than Tk99.

Although banks are collecting dollars at higher prices from exchange houses, they offered a maximum rate of Tk95 for encashing export earnings.

On condition of anonymity, the head of the treasury department of a leading private bank said, "The amount size is important when it comes to encash the value of exported goods. Those who have cashed less amount are getting a rate of Tk94. However, exporters with large cash prices have a better chance of bargaining with the dollar rate. So, they are getting a bit higher rate."

Bankers also said that remittance inflow is not increasing much ahead of Eid compared to previous years.

However, the dollar price in the Kerb market has been stable for the last three days. Money changers in Motijheel, Paltan and Baitul Mukarram areas of the capital sold dollars at Tk97.70-97.80 and bought at Tk97.40-97.50 on Thursday.

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.