Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves dropped to $39.04 billion on Tuesday after Bangladesh Bank sold $153 million to banks for import bill payments.
In the current FY23 starting in July, the central bank sold around $2.44 billion so far. It had sold a record $7.62 billion from reserves in FY22.
According to the central bank, it sold more than $150 million for the second consecutive day. On Monday, $164 million was sold from the reserves.
At the end of July, the reserves stood at $39.60 billion. If the dollar sale continues at this pace, the reserves may fall below $39 billion within a short period, said the people concerned.
On Tuesday evening, the Association of Bankers Bangladesh (ABB) held a meeting to decide on the dollar market. Managing directors of different banks including ABB Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Brac Bank Selim RF Hussain were present at the meeting.
The bankers discussed steps to restore stability in the dollar market and activate the interbank exchange platform.
State-owned banks have expressed relief at increasing dollar support from the central bank. According to them, this results in less dependence on the market for dollars.
Spokesperson and Executive Director of the central bank Md Serajul Islam said: “Stabilizing the dollar market is not our main target. The market will move at its own pace.”
“We have to consider the purchase of some sectors of the government including energy. If the private or state-owned banks do not have dollars for LC settlements, dollars are sold from the central bank. We continue to honour it,” he added.
Dollar sells at Tk112 in the open market
Despite a slight drop in banks, dollar rates have gone up in the open market. On Tuesday, money changers sold the greenback at Tk112, up from Tk111 on the previous day.
Cash dollars were sold for Tk109 in on Thursday. Earlier, the central bank suspended the operations of five money changers for alleged irregularities.
In addition, the Bangladesh Bank warned 42 money changers on various charges and the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, which works to prevent money laundering, has called for the bank account information of 28 money changers. On Tuesday, state-owned banks sold dollars in import LC settlements at a maximum Tk108.
The highest rate of Tk109 was charged on Monday. But private banks have been charging slightly lower for dollars in LC settlements for the last few days.
Besides, exchange houses slightly lowered the dollar on Tuesday. Remittance dollars were collected from the houses at a maximum of Tk110. However, there is still a dollar crisis in the market. Although there is a shortage of dollars, the price of the dollar may decrease slightly in the next few days, said treasury department heads of at least two banks. They said that private banks have already reduced the dollar price.
Although the state-owned banks are still charging high for dollars, they are expecting that they will be able to bring it down in a few days.
