Interbank exchange rate now Tk 92.5 per dollar

The central bank has depreciated the taka against the US dollar by 50 paisa to Tk 92.5 from now.

Bangladesh Bank sold over $100 million at this new exchange rate on Monday, according to Serajul Islam, spokesman of the central bank.

‎With this, the central bank has increased the price of the dollar by more than Tk 6 in the last two months. ‎

Some banks, however, are charging more than Tk 95 per dollar from importers and remitters getting Tk 93-94 per dollar, according to sources.

Earlier on Sunday, foreign exchange leaders at a meeting agreed to quote the same price of Tk 93 for a dollar for exchange houses.

However, some banks were found breaching the deal, which actually brought the central bank in for intervention in the second half of the day. This led to BB issuing warnings to at least four banks.

On June 29, BB fixed the inter-bank exchange rate at Tk 89 per US dollar, following requests from two apex bodies of bankers and forex dealers in the country.

However, on June 2, the central bank backtracked from the decision and had to reset the interbank rate for three days in a row to align it with the market prices.

Even then, the move by the central bank failed to bring the desired result and the gap between the interbank and market rates reached over Tk 4 per dollar on Tuesday, because of the scarcity of the greenback.

Bangladesh Bank launched a floating exchange rate in 2003, but it was not truly floating as the central often intervened in the markets to keep the exchange rate stable, which also paid the country off as exporters got good rates when the demand for the greenback was down.

The present crisis for the US dollar rose from the trade gap of $27 billion in the first ten months of the current fiscal year.