Bangladesh Bank purchased a record amount of $3.99 billion from the commercial banks between July 1 and April 21 of financial year 2012-13 with a view to stop the devaluation of the greenback against the local currency Taka, officials of the central bank said.
‘But the central bank initiative has virtually failed as the US dollar continued to depreciate against the Taka hitting below Tk 78 a dollar on Sunday,’ a BB official told New Age.
According to the BB record book, the central bank bought the highest amount of dollar in the first nine months and 21 days of the current fiscal year since FY 2004-05.
It is not possible to collect the data beyond FY 2004-05 as the information are not available in the BB record book.
Before the FY 2012-13, the BB purchased the highest amount of greenbacks worth $2.16 billion in FY2009-10, the central bank statistics showed.
The BB purchased $157 million in FY 2011-12, $316.50 million in FY 2010-11 and $1,484.20 million in FY 2008-09.
The BB officials said that the purchase of US dollar by the central bank would not put positive impact on the macro-economic situation of the country as the greenback was not being invested in the productive sector.
Majority of the commercial banks are now enjoying available greenback due to lower import growth and higher inflow of remittances, one of the BB officials said.
‘Under the circumstances, the lower demand and higher supply of the US dollar to the local market continued to push the BB for purchasing the greenbacks,’ he said.
The BB has already bought the US dollar worth $418 million this month from the commercial banks, of which $87 million on April 18, $130 million on April 16, $105 million on April 11, $70 million on April 4 and $26 million on April 1.
The BB bought $407 million in March, $500 million in February, $615 million in January, $338 million in December and $731 million in October of this financial year, the BB data showed.
The country’s foreign exchange reserve has recently made a fresh record crossing $14 billion mark. The forex reserve was $14.64 billion on Sunday.
The BB official said that import of capital machinery, industrial raw materials and intermediate goods had decreased massively in the first eight months of the FY2012-13 which ultimately played a significant role in devaluation of the greenback against the Taka.
Another BB official said that the the central bank had taken the initiative of purchasing the greenback to maintain an equilibrium standard rate between the dollar and the Taka so that the expatriate Bangladeshis are encouraged in remitting more to the country and to preserve the interest of the local exporters.
The BB data, however, showed that the greenback continued to depreciate against the Taka frequently failing the central bank’s effort.
The dollar was quoted at Tk 77.98 to Tk 78 in the inter-bank forex market on Sunday and Thursday against Tk 78.01 to Tk 78.01 on the previous day and it was quoted at Tk 79.75 to Tk 79.80 on January 1, 2013.
The greenback depreciated 4.69 per cent against the Taka in the last one year as the indicative selling rate of dollar stood at Tk 77.98 on April 21 coming down from Tk 81.82 on April 19, 2012.
The dollar earlier appreciated by 19.29 per cent against local currency as the indicative selling rate of dollar stood at Tk 84.45 on January 29, 2012 up from Tk 70.79 on January 2, 2011 due to a higher import payment.
US dollar purchase by BB
Financial year 2012-2013
(as of April 21)
2011-12
2010-11
2009-10
2008-09
2007-08
2006-07
2005-06
2004-05
Amount ( in million)
$3,993
$157
$316.50
$2,161
$1,484.20
$202.50
$649.50
$79.90
$64.70
Courtesy of New Age
