BB purchasing dollar to maintain price

Bangladesh Bank is taking various steps to maintain the value of dollar as the expatriates have sent a record amount of remittance in a single week ahead of the Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr.

Officials said the central bank has been purchasing dollar everyday from the money market to keep the foreign currency reserve at a satisfactory level as well as to encourage the increasing inflow of foreign remittance.

The Bangladesh Bank has bought $100 million from the market even on Monday, officials said.

According to the central bank, the expatriates have sent around $318.2 million in remittance between Jul 7 and Jul 13 and that is a record of foreign remittance sent by expatriate Bangladeshis through banking channel.

Central bank officials expected that this trend of increasing inflow of foreign remittance would continue for next three months until the next Eid-ul-Azha.

The statistics released by the Bangladesh Bank on Monday showed expatriates have remitted around $196.4 million between Jul 1 and Jul 6. The total remittance inflow in the first 13 days of July was around $514.6 million.

The foreign currency reserve was at $10.10 billion on Sunday. But the healthy remittance inflow pushed the reserve to $10.2 billion on Monday.

A satisfied Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman told bdnews24.com: “The expatriates are continuing to play a special role in our economy. They sent a record remittance of $12.85 billion in the last fiscal, which was 10 percent more than the previous fiscal.”

“They have kept the trend in the new fiscal. Two Eid festivals are near and the expatriates will send more money to their families ahead of these festivals. Most important, the impact on the reserve will be positive,” he said.

Source: Bdnews24