Business Desk :
The price of dollar has come down to Tk98 in the curb market or open market just a day after crossing Tk100.
A day ago dollar traded for around TK103. However, on Wednesday (18 May) the price dropped below Tk100, said the traders and brokers.
Although the price saw a decline, several money exchange companies said the dollar’s value is still high because demands have been growing steadily while the supply crisis continues.
Some of them said they failed to buy dollars even at a reduced price because of high demand. “The dollar crisis has turned extreme in the last one week, with the price increasing every day,” a dollar seller in the Motijheel open market said Tuesday on condition of anonymity.
“We are not getting dollars. I could not buy even one dollar on Wednesday,” the seller added and recommended that no one should try to buy dollars now unless it is an emergency. “We have been buying dollars at Tk102 and selling at Tk103.50 since this morning,” a senior official at Dawn Money Exchange, one of the largest exchange companies in the capital told on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Bank on Monday (16 May) devalued taka against the US dollar for the third time in two months to stabilise the currency market.
The US dollar exchange rate for interbank transactions was revised to Tk87.5 on the day, up by Tk0.80 – the highest devaluation of taka on a day in the country’s history. The Bangladesh Bank on Tuesday sold dollars to banks at a rate of Tk87.50, up from Thursday’s Tk86.70. But the banks were selling one dollar at more than Tk91. A senior official of the Bangladesh Bank said more imports than exports and the rise in remittance inflow are impacting the dollar price.
According to authorities concerned, the cost of import is way more than the export income of the country for which extra dollars are needed to pay the import duty but compared to that, remittance and export income did not increase. As a result, the pressure on the US dollar in the banking system and in the open market is increasing. This has led to a shortage of foreign exchange.
