Welcome to Business Outlook
Related Articles
The Bangladesh Bank has asked six banks to remove the heads of their treasury departments amid allegation of dollar price manipulation.
The central bank sent letters to the six banks in this regard on Monday.
The banks are Standard Chartered Bank, BRAC Bank, Dutch-Bangla Bank, City Bank, Southeast Bank, and Prime Bank, said central bank officials.
They said that the treasury chiefs preserved large amount of dollars in order to raise the price of the bank note.
The exchange rate of a dollar shot up to Tk 115 in the open market on Monday amid a shortage of the currency in the financial market. The interbank rate of dollar was set at Tk 95, raising from Tk 94.7.
Banks buy dollars from exporters at a lower rate and sell those at a much higher rate to importers to make huge profits.
The central bank has so far inspected more than 100 exchange houses and issued show-cause notices on 42 houses and suspended licences of five houses.
On Monday, the central bank injected $139 million into the financial market that dipped the foreign reserve to $39.56 billion on Monday from $39.66 billion on August 8. The reserve was $48.06 billion in August 2021.
Bangladesh struggled with dollar shortage due to the higher imports compared with the exports. The current Russia-Ukraine war has escalated the current economic crisis in the country due to the global supply chain disruption.
Bangladesh’s trade deficit hit a historic high of $33.25 billion in the financial year 2021-22 amid surge in imports and commodity prices on the global market.
(NA)
