Staff Correspondent
Buying the US dollar from Bangladesh Bank becomes costlier as the central bank raised the policy rate by Tk 1.0 to Tk 102 each, in the process of a single market rate.Now the BB is selling the greenback to the commercial banks at Tk 102 following the upward revision of the rate in line with suggestion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) team for reaching a uniform exchange rate of the dollar on the market.On the other hand, forex dealers also raised the exchange rate of the dollar for export proceeds by Tk 1.0 to reach Tk 104.
Seeking anonymity, a BB official said the central bank wants to reach the target of a unified market rate of the dollar as per the suggestion made by the IMF representatives during their Dhaka visit negotiating a loan.
As part of the plan, the central bank already increased the rate by Tk 1.0 on March 01 to fix it at Tk 102 each, but the interbank weighted average rate of is Tk 104.”We need to further lessen the rate gap. We want to do it slowly in phases, so that it cannot trigger any panic in the market. So, our plan is to revise the rate of dollar that the BB sells to the banks to cross Tk 105 each by coming June,” the BB official said. Citing the recent upward adjustment of dollar by Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers’ Association (BAFEDA), the official said the plan is to make the rates by BAFEDA, BB and interbank equal and take those to a level where its difference with the rate the remitters enjoy will be two-percentage points. “We need to reach the target by June in accordance with our monetary policy statement (MPS),” says the official.
He hopes the measure will protect the forex reserves, already under stress in the wake of dollar appreciation and mounting import costs following the Russia-Ukraine war.
As part of the reserve-protective move amid the ongoing volatile global economic situation, the BB is encouraging import of only the most essential goods.
So, the banks that facilitate import of such essential items will face some pressure to meet their dollar requirement from the central bank.
However, economists say the tightening has a domino effect on domestic market situation, as prices remain stubbornly high.
The pressure on the forex reserves keeps rising because of growing import costs in the wake of volatile global macroeconomic situation. Now, by official count, the reserves stood at US$32.30 billion as on March 02, 2023.

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