The Bangladesh Bank purchased dollars worth $34.90 crore in the first 25 days of the current fiscal year as most of the scheduled banks are now holding good amount of dollars amid stagnant business situation in the country due to the ongoing political unrest, said BB officials.
A BB official told New Age on Thursday that the central bank had been compelled to purchase from the banks a record amount of dollars in the fiscal year 2012-13 due to lower import growth and increased inflow of inward remittance and the situation remained same in July of this fiscal year.
The official said the BB had taken the move also with a view to curbing depreciation of greenback against the local currency taka.
According to the BB record book, the central bank bought the highest amount of dollars worth $4.53 billion in the just concluded fiscal year since FY 2004-05.
It is not possible to collect the data beyond FY05 as the information is not available in the BB record book.
The BB purchased dollars worth $157 million in FY12, $316.50 million in FY11 and $1,484.20 million in FY09.
The BB, like the last fiscal year, started the current fiscal year with huge amount of greenback purchase.
The BB data showed that the central bank purchased dollars worth $30 million on July 3, $25 million on July 8, $79 million on July 9, $21 million on July 10, $144 million on July 23 and $50 million on July 25 of this fiscal year.
The country’s foreign exchange reserve in the last few months increased significantly due to the BB’s dollar purchase.
The foreign exchange reserve stood at $15.49 billion on July 31, up from $15.31 billion on June 30 of 2013.
The BB official said that a number of commercial banks were now sitting on idle dollars as their import-related business maintained a downward trend.
The BB data showed that the settlement of letters of credit for import bill payment in July–May of the FY13 had posted a negative growth of 9.09 per cent compared with that of 10.93 per cent growth during the corresponding period of the FY12.
The settlement of LCs or import bill payment in July–May of the FY13 stood at $29.48 billion against that of $32.42 billion in the same period of the FY12.
The growth in settlement of the LCs for industrial raw materials and capital machinery had registered a negative growth — 3.09 per cent for industrial raw materials and 14.23 per cent for capital machinery — in July–May of the FY13.
Growth in settlement of LCs for industrial raw materials was 10.45 per cent and that for capital machinery was 23.57 per cent in July–May of the FY12.
The BB official said that the import of industrial raw material and the capita machinery had declined massively in the period as the businesspeople were reluctant to expand their business due to the political unrest ahead of the national elections.
The demand for dollar will increase when the businessmen will look forward to set up new industrial unit and boost up their production, he said.
Besides, the expatriate Bangladeshis have sent a significant amount of dollars in July ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.
The BB data showed that the inflow of inward remittances stood at $1,007 million in the first 26 days of July resulting that the BB had to purchase the greenback from the banking sector.
Another BB official said that the value of dollar would have depreciated significantly if the central bank did not buy the greenback from the market.
Depreciation in the greenback usually discourages the exporters to export their products and the expatriates Bangladeshis in sending remittances to the country, he said.
The BB data, however, showed that the central bank failed to curb the devaluation of the dollar against the taka in the FY13 despite the fact that it purchased a huge amount of dollar.
The value of dollar declined by 4.83 per cent in the FY13 from that of FY12 as the greenback was quoted at Tk 77.75 on July 31, 2013 against Tk 81.70 on July 31, 2012.
-With New Age input
