The exchange rate of Bangladeshi Taka (Tk) against the US dollar has stabilized, easing pressure on dollar sales, helping to control forex reserves.
The US dollar is now selling to importers as well as the interbank market at Tk120 each while the buying rate is offered to exporters at Tk119, according to market operators.
The exchange rate has been maintaining these levels since August 20 and the operators are expecting it to continue until December as the mid-rate of crawling peg is unlikely to be reviewed before the next monetary policy, scheduled to be released in January 2025.
Earlier on August 18, the central bank increased the band of the crawling peg, allowing fluctuations of the exchange rate within a predefined range, to 2.5% instead of 1% earlier aiming to improve the flow of foreign exchange in the market.
The central bank introduced a crawling peg mid-rate of Tk117 in May this year by allowing over 6.3% depreciation of the Taka, which significantly lost value in the last two and a half years amid falling foreign exchange reserves.
Meanwhile, the country's gross foreign exchange (forex) reserve has grown further following lower import payment obligations and higher inflow of remittances.
The forex reserves rose to $25.42 billion on October 28 from $25.30 billion on October 23 as per the traditional calculation method of the central bank. It was $24.86 billion on September 30.
As per the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Balance of Payments International Investment Poisson Manual-six edition, generally known as BMP6, the reserves rose to $19.89 billion during the period under review from $19.81 billion, according to the central bank's latest data.
The IMF-calculated figure was $19.86 billion on September 30.
The flow of inward remittances grew by more than 33% to $6.54 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of the current FY25, from $4.91 billion in FY24.
The central bank so far this month (October) bought around $50 million from commercial banks as part of its intervention into the market, the data showed. Such buying was $88.50 million in September.
The selling of the greenback from the reserves of the central bank almost suspended recently, contributing to build up the forex reserves.
The central bank sold only $10 million until October 28 to the commercial banks for settling import payment obligations. It was $111 million in September.
The actual import in terms of settlement of letters of credit (LCs) fell by 2.40% to $16.21 billion during the July-September period of FY25, from $16.61 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal, according to the central bank's latest data.
