Bangladesh Bank fixes interbank dollar rate at Tk91.95

The Bangladesh Bank fixed the interbank exchange rate of dollar at Tk91.95 today.

About $10 million was sold by the central bank on Monday, said BB spokesperson Md Serajul Islam.

The central bank will sell dollars at the newly fixed rate from now, he added.

The price has been increased by Tk2.05 from Sunday's rate of Tk89.90. On Thursday, the price of dollars was Tk91.5.

Previously on Sunday, most banks in the country settled import Letters of Credit (LCs) at Tk91.50-Tk92 per dollar, two days after the central bank withdrew the uniform exchange rate of dollars.

The Bangladesh Bank on 26 May had fixed a uniform rate for selling dollars by all banks for international trade.

However, they withdrew this provision from 2 June and said that banks can set the rates for remittance and Letters of Credit (LC) on their own accord.

A senior official of the treasury department of a state-owned bank said that the rate set by Bangladesh Bank for the collection of remittances would have a major impact. So, the rate has been lifted by the central bank.

However, banks have been asked to be vigilant so that the price of dollar is not increased suddenly. The foreign exchange houses have been asked to ensure the same.

People concerned said prices of all kinds of commodities on the international market were going up because of increasing demand all over the world in the wake of improvement in the Covid situation. On top of this, the onset of the Ukraine-Russia war in February caused a disruption in the global supply chain, causing shipment costs to go up. This led to an increased demand for the US dollar.

As a result, like in many countries in the world, the local currency of Bangladesh also started to lose value against the dollar.

In interbank transactions alone, the taka has depreciated by more than 3% against the US dollar since April 2021. In April last, the exchange rate was Tk84.8. 

On 12 April, following an inter-ministerial meeting, the BPC was told to pay the fuel oil bill by purchasing dollars at the market rate or the interbank rate.

On April 26 of the same month, the BPC informed the decision to the state-owned and private banks. 

With the inter-bank exchange rate rising, the value of paper dollars is also increasing by leaps and bounds.

On Monday, buyers had to pay Tk98.20 to buy $1 from money exchangers. Earlier, on 17 May, the price of $1 rose to Tk102 in the kerb market.

Dollars come to the kerb market mainly from expatriate workers and tourists returning from abroad. Many sell the dollars they bring with them to money exchangers. Again, foreign-bound people buy dollars from these institutions.