Bangladesh Bank has so far purchased total 2.08 billion from the banks since July in a bid to prevent further depreciation of the US dollar against the taka.
According to a central bank report, the dollar purchases began on July 13 with $171 million and continued in eight phases till Thursday, bringing the total to $2.088 billion. The purchases were made under the multiple price auction method at rates between Tk 121.5 and Tk 121.9 per dollar.
Officials said the purchased amount has been added to the country鈥檚 foreign exchange reserve. As of October 9, Bangladesh鈥檚 gross foreign exchange reserve stood at $31.93 billion, while the reserve measured under the IMF鈥檚 BPM6 guidelines was $27.12 billion.
The central bank鈥檚 intervention aimed to stabilise the foreign exchange market following a drop in the dollar rate. As a result, the exchange rate has held steady at around Tk 122, compared with Tk 119.5 on July 12.
Over the past three years until fiscal year 2024-25, the BB sold more than $25 billion from its foreign exchange reserves, largely to cover import bills for fuel, fertiliser and food, which cut forex reserve to $18 billion.
In March this year, as foreign exchange reserves began to rebound and the decline of taka slowed, the central bank began to purchase dollars.
BB officials said that the central bank was buying dollars to maintain a steady supply of the greenback as a weaker dollar could hurt remittances and exports.
Bankers said that the increased inflows from remittances and exports in unison have increased the dollar supply.
Moreover, with fewer import letters of credit (LCs) being opened and many banks eager to offload their dollar holdings, the demand of dollars in the market has reduced considerably, they said.
Since December 2021, the dollar had steadily appreciated against the taka, climbing from Tk 84.81 in June 2021 to Tk 93.45 in June 2022, and reaching Tk 106 in June 2023.
