Bangladesh Bank Continues Dollar Purchases: Another $31.30 Million Added to Reserves

To bolster the country's foreign exchange reserves, Bangladesh Bank purchased an additional $31.30 million US dollars from 22 commercial banks through an auction on July 15. The cut-off rate for these dollar purchases was set at BDT 121.50 per dollar. A senior official of Bangladesh Bank confirmed that a total of $486 million has been bought through two separate auctions in the past three days, which will be added to the country's foreign exchange reserves.

According to central bank sources, since the market-based pricing of the US dollar in the country's money market, banks have been regularly trading dollars among themselves, adhering to international practices. Bangladesh Bank has started purchasing surplus dollars through auctions. This measure is reportedly taken to prevent unusual fluctuations in dollar prices.

It's worth noting that one of the conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was to float the dollar exchange rate to the market. According to Bangladesh Bank data, the dollar exchange rate in the country's money market reached a maximum of BDT 122 yesterday.