Volatility in the local forex market intensified after banks introduced uniform exchange rates as the Bangladesh taka depreciated further against the US dollar on Monday as per the latest experiment.
The local currency lost its value by Tk1 on the interbank forex market on the day, more than a month after a similar fall, according to market operators.
The US currency was quoted at Tk96 each on the day against Tk95 on the previous working day.
It was Tk94.70 on August 8.
In a string of regulatory measures to manage the wayward market amid a global crunch come the banks-set uniform rates in three stages of foreign-exchange dealings by authorized dealer (AD) banks.
Top bankers on Sunday agreed on the uniform exchange rates in consonance with the desire of the central bank.
The local currency has shed its value by Tk10.20 or 11.89% to the aggressive dollar since January 2022.
The dollar traded at Tk85.80 on January 8 last.
Under the uniform-rates arrangement, the banks offered a maximum Tk108 per dollar on the day to overseas exchange houses for netting in remittances while all types of export proceeds were purchased for Tk99 from the exporters.
However, the weighted average rate for the sale of bills for collection, generally known as BC, for settling import payments stood at Tk103.43 on the day, according to a monitoring report, prepared by the Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers’ Association (Bafeda.)
Bafeda calculated the weighted average rate considering the exchange houses and the exporters’ rates offered by 37 banks out of its 55 member-banks until 4pm Monday.
In case of settling import-payment obligations, the banks are allowed to keep the highest Tk1 as spread over the weighted average of the exchange houses and the exporters’ rates, according to the guidelines issued Sunday by Bafeda and the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB).
Both Bafeda and the ABB expect that when all export proceeds and all inward remittances are bought at Tk99 and Tk108 respectively, and the selling rate is calculated on the weighted-average cost of these two, an interbank rate will eventually emerge around this weighted average cost line.
Meanwhile, the central bank is providing the US dollar as foreign-currency liquidity support to the AD banks continuously for managing the forex-market bucks.
As part of the ongoing moves, the central bank sold $65 million more directly to four commercial banks on Monday at Tk96 instead of Tk95 earlier to help them meet a growing demand for the greenback.
The central bank has so far injected $2.82 billion from the reserves directly into commercial banks as liquidity support for import payments in the current FY23.
In FY22, the central bank sold $7.62 billion from the reserves to the banks for the same purpose.
The forex reserves stood at $37.12 billion Sunday against $37.06 billion of the previous day.
It was $46.20 billion in September 2021.
