The Bangladesh Bank on Monday fixed the interbank exchange rate of dollars at Tk91.95, which was an increase of Tk2.05 from Thursday's rate of Tk89.90.
On Sunday, most local banks settled import letters of credit (LCs) at Tk91.50-Tk92 on the dollar, two days after the central bank withdrew the uniform exchange rate of dollars.
The Bangladesh Bank on May 26 had fixed a uniform rate for selling dollars by all banks for international trade.
However, they withdrew this provision last week and said that banks could set the rates for remittance and LC on their own accord.
Sources said that global commodity prices were up because of increasing demand in the wake of improvement in the Covid-19 situation.
On top of this, the onset of the Ukraine-Russia war in February caused a disruption in the global supply chain, causing shipment costs to go up.
This led to an increased demand for the US dollar.
As a result, like in many countries in the world, the local currency of Bangladesh also started to lose value against the dollar.
In interbank transactions alone, the taka has depreciated by more than 3% against the US dollar since April 2021.
In April last, the exchange rate was Tk84.8.
On April 12, following an inter-ministerial meeting, the BPC was told to pay the fuel oil bill by purchasing dollars at the market rate or the interbank rate.
On April 26 the same month, the BPC informed the decision to the state-owned and private banks.
With the interbank exchange rate rising, the value of paper dollars is also increasing by leaps and bounds.
On Monday, buyers had to pay Tk98.20 to buy $1 from money exchangers.
Earlier, on May 17, the price of $1 rose to Tk102 in the kerb market.
Dollars come to the kerb market mainly from expatriate workers and tourists returning from abroad.
Many sell the dollars they bring with them to money exchangers. People travelling abroad also buy dollars from these institutions.
