Interbank dollar rate rises to Tk106.9

Banks had to spend a maximum of Tk106.9 on Tuesday to buy the dollar from their peers, which was Tk106.15 on the previous day.

This means the greenback has appreciated by Tk0.75 in interbank transactions in a span of just one day.

The central bank and the Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers' Association (Bafeda) said banks traded $35 million among themselves on Tuesday. They bought the dollar at a minimum of Tk102.37, compared with the lowest rate of Tk101.67 on Monday.

This means the minimum rate of the greenback has also increased by Tk0.60 in a gap of just one day.

On Monday, banks traded $16 million between themselves.

Until Sunday, the price at which the Bangladesh Bank sold dollars was considered the interbank exchange rate and it was shown on the official website of the central bank.

Banks now have to spend Tk96 to buy dollars from the central bank following an increase in the rate by Tk1 on Monday. However, the central bank no longer calls it the interbank rate.

The Bangladesh Bank gets the rate at which banks buy and sell dollars among themselves from Bafeda and uploads it on the website as the interbank exchange rate.

The central bank is still selling dollars from reserves for Letter of Credit (LC) settlements of government imports. But the rate is no longer uploaded on its website as before.

According to the treasury department heads of several banks, banks are taking some time to adapt to the new method of determining the dollar rate which has been effective for just three days. There are some small problems, but after a few days, they will be settled down.

According to the decision made at a meeting between Bafeda and the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB), banks are now fixing the dollar rate for import LC settlements by adding a maximum profit of Tk1 to the weighted average of the previous five days' buying price.

On Wednesday, a review of the dollar buying by an average of 56 banks in the country showed that most of the banks' dollar buying average was between Tk99 and Tk105.

The average price of dollar purchase across all banks stood at Tk103.36. The rate was Tk103.30 on Tuesday. According to that, the dollar purchase price of banks has increased by Tk0.06.

Banks said exporters received Tk99 fixed by Bafeda for each dollar for their export proceeds. Besides, exchange houses were given a maximum of Tk108 per dollar for remittances.

Earlier, the exchange houses sold remittance dollars to banks at a maximum of Tk113-114. Then customers also got a maximum of Tk110 per dollar.

The exchange houses have also reduced the dollar price at the consumer level as banks themselves have decided not to buy remittances at prices higher than Tk108. Among them, MoneyGram and Western Union are collecting remittances at Tk106.92 and Tk107.73 each dollar, respectively.

The dollar rate was Tk113 in the open market on Wednesday. Money changers said they bought the greenback at Tk112.20.