The Bangladesh Bank yesterday sold another $100 million from its foreign exchange reserves through an auction, aiming to stabilise the currency market amid rising import costs, particularly for fuel.
The sale follows a $122 million auction last week, the first of its kind in a long while. In yesterday’s auction, banks were asked to bid for at least $500,000 each in a single bid.
The central bank had also called a $100 million auction last Tuesday. Several banks participated, but the auction was cancelled at the last moment.
Before the fall of the Awami League government in 2024, the central bank sold large amounts of dollars from its reserves over three years. Reserves, which had exceeded $48 billion in August 2021, fell to $25.92 billion as a result.
After Ahsan H Mansur took over as governor in August 2024, he made it clear that no dollars would be sold. The present governor has maintained the same position. Reserves rose as a result, crossing $37 billion on June 29 and reaching $37.41 billion on September 1. They have since fallen to $36.43 billion as of Tuesday.
An official of the central bank, seeking anonymity, said hopes of an improvement in the global conflict situation have emerged following the US midterm elections, which saw Democrats gaining full control of both chambers of the US Congress, and Israel’s general election, which has seen Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling religious-nationalist coalition officially lost its majority.
Oil and dollar prices fell in the global market yesterday, and the situation is expected to improve in Bangladesh too, the official said.
After a long period of stability, the dollar rate has been rising for the past few days. It crossed Tk 124 in the interbank market this week, and the dollar was sold at Tk 124.35 on each of the last two days, up from Tk 124.30 the two days before.
At the start of October, the rate was Tk 123, and it had reached Tk 123.99 by the last working day of the month, data showed.
For a year and a half after the Awami League’s fall, the interbank rate had stayed between Tk 121 and Tk 122.30. It has been climbing since March this year.
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