Bangladesh Bank on Monday purchased record $353 million, highest in a single day, from banks in an attempt to halt the fall of the US dollar against the taka.
BB officials said that the dollars were purchased from 26 banks at the rate of Tk 121.75 under multiple price auction method.
The purchasing amount will be added to the country鈥檚 foreign exchange reserve balance, BB officials said.
Since July 1, the Bangladesh Bank purchased around $1.74 billion to stabilise the foreign exchange market after decline in the dollar rate.
As a result of the intervention, the dollar rate remained at Tk 122, which dropped to 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.
Gross foreign exchange reserve hit $30.6 billion on September 14.
According to International Monetary Fund guidelines, Bangladesh鈥檚 reserves stood at $25.75 billion on September 14.