Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh’s currency taka has depreciated further against the US dollar, hitting Tk 92.50 on the interbank platform recently. The exchange rate stood at Tk 92 per dollar on June 13 before falling by Tk 0.50 the next day, the 13th decline this year. The Bangladesh Bank injected $105 million into the market recently to help banks settle import bills.
The central bank supplied a record $6.79 billion to the market between July 1 and June 13 this fiscal. Despite such steps, the foreign exchange market is facing a shortage of US dollars due to the soaring import payments and the declining trend of remittance, according to Bangladeshi media reports. Import payments have shot up since the end of last year due to the rising prices of commodities in the global market.
Between July and April, imports went up by 41 per cent to $68.66 billion, while exports grew by 35 per cent to $41 billion. This resulted in a record trade deficit of $27.56 billion, up by 53 per cent year on year. Remittance, the cheapest source of foreign currency for the country, fell by 16 per cent year on year to $19.2 billion in the first 11 months of this fiscal.
All these led to the decline in the foreign exchange reserves to $41.7 billion on June 1, which was $46.15 billion on December 31.
