Foreign exchange rates to be floated shortly: Minister

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said on Wednesday that the government is contemplating launching market-based foreign currency exchange rates.

“We’re considering floating exchange rates based on market forces. Today or tomorrow, we’ll have to go for market-based trading of foreign currency,” he told reporters while briefing on the outcomes of two consecutive meetings of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) and Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP), in the city.

The finance minister’s remarks came against the backdrop of the recent volatility in the foreign currency market as the US dollar recently sold at Tk 119 from Tk 85.

Although Bangladesh Bank recently set the exchange rate at Tk 95 per dollar, the private banks were trading the greenback at Tk 108.