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The Bangladesh Bank has decided to raise its dollar price by 1% to Tk 101, after economists called for market-determined exchange rates amid forex instability.
The revised rate takes effect from the first week of February, officials said about the development coming in the wake of the dollar crisis.
The central bank is making its dollar costlier as it has planned to raise its exchange rate to market-equilibrium level within the next few months, they also said.
Currently it sells the US dollar at Tk100 each, much lower than the market rates.
The move comes in line with the suggestions from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) team that visited Dhaka recently to reach a uniform rate of dollar on the market.
As part of a plan, the central bank had already increased the rate by Tk1 on November 10 to fix it at Tk98 each, but the interbank weighted average rate was Tk103 that time.
Sources opined that the measure would protect the forex reserves, already under stress in the wake of dollar appreciation and mounting import costs against falling earnings from export and remittance amid global doldrums set off by the Russia-Ukraine war.
Economists also see regulated lower rates of the greenback as a major disservice behind the ebbing forex earnings from the two main sources as the exporters and remitters may be dodging official channels for higher gains from currency cartels.
Currently, many government organizations are buying the dollar directly from the BB following a big gap on the market.
Banks now collect the greenback at Tk107 when it is remittance. And the dollar price for exporters is pegged at Tk102.
The interbank taka-dollar rate is over Tk106.
The state-owned enterprises which procure oils and other energy products have been directly purchasing the greenback from the BB.
Bankers think the move will cast more pressure on the banks’ local-currency reserves, as the financial institutions will have to use more local currency to meet their foreign-currency obligation.
Economists suggest further revision of bank deposit and lending rates to enhance liquidity in the banking system in sync with dollar-rate deregulation.
(DT)
