Bangladesh Bank purchased $2.02 billion from the country’s scheduled banks between July 1 and November 21 of the current financial year 2013-14 as the investment sector is now passing a stagnant situation due to the ongoing political unrest, said officials of the central bank.
The banks have failed to invest the foreign currency in the investment sector as the businesspeople are now reluctant to set up new industrial units by importing industrial raw materials and capital machinery at the moment, they said.
Under the circumstances, the central bank has no option but to buy the dollar with a view to curbing the depreciation of the greenback against the local currency taka, the officials said.
The country’s foreign exchange reserve has recently crossed $17-billion mark as the central bank continued to purchase the greenback from the market.
A BB official told New Age that the foreign exchange reserve had decreased to $16.63 billion as of November 7 from $17.60 billion as of November 6 as the country had made a routine payment of $890 million to the Asian Clearing Union against imports during the September-October period of the current calendar year.
The reserve, however, crossed $17-billion mark shortly as the BB purchased a significant amount of dollar in this month.
The foreign exchange reserve stood at $17.05 billion as of November 25.
According to the BB data, the central bank purchased $370 million in the first 21 days of this month, of which $35 million on November 21, $30 million on November 18, $55 million on November 14, $57 million on November 13, $68 million on November 12, $65 million on November 6 and $60 million on November 4.
The BB official said that the purchase of US dollar by the central bank would not bring positive impact on the macro-economic situation of the country as the greenback was not being invested in the productive sector.
The high-ups of the BB, however, claimed that the robust foreign exchange reserve had strengthened the country’s macro-economic situation.
The BB official said that the central bank had taken the initiative to maintain an equilibrium standard rate between the dollar and the taka so that the expatriate Bangladeshis encouraged remitting more greenbacks to their relatives.
Besides, the exporters usually feel discouraged to export their products if the rate of dollar depreciated against the taka.
Due to the BB effort, the rate of greenback against the taka is now maintaining a stable position in the last few months, he said. The dollar was quoted at Tk 77.75 in the inter-bank forex market in the period.
The BB also took the measure of purchasing the dollar in a bid to curb the inflationary pressure by mopping up the dollar from the market and it is providing treasury bonds and treasury bills to the scheduled banks against the dollars’ worth instead of cash liquidity, he said.
The BB data showed that the central bank had purchased $585 million in October, $329 million in September, $226 million in August and $512 million in July of this financial year.
The BB had purchased a record amount of greenback worth $4.53 billion from the market in the FY13.
The BB record showed that the central bank had bought the highest amount of dollar in the FY13 since the FY05.
It is not possible to collect the data before the FY05 as the information is not available in the BB record book.
Another BB official said that the central bank might make new record in purchasing the greenback if it maintained the current purchasing trend in the rest of months of the FY14.
He said that the country’s export earnings had increased significantly in the first four months of the FY13, but the import declined significantly in the period in accordance with the requirement of the industrial sector.
Under the circumstances, majority number of the banks are now enjoying available greenback and
the central bank is being compelled to purchase the dollar from the banks, he said.
The rate of dollar against the local currency would have declined below Tk 60 if the central bank did not purchase the greenback from the market over the last and the current financial year, the official said.
-With New Age input
