Business & Finance
Bangladesh Bank Restores Dollar Sales After 14‑Month Pause
Bangladesh Bank (BB) has resumed selling US dollars to the market after a 14‑month hiatus, citing rising demand and the need to stabilise the foreign exchange market. The central bank sold $11.50 million to six banks yesterday, officials said. The weighted average interbank exchange rate today was Tk 123.35 per dollar, up from Tk 123.20 a day earlier, according to BB data. A modest increase in dollar demand has been driven by growing import payments amid rising global oil prices. The US‑Israel war over Iran has pushed up fuel prices worldwide, with Brent crude futures up 1.3 percent to $107.05 a barrel today. BB data showed import bills rose 8.6 percent year‑on‑year to $6.44 billion in July, largely due to petroleum product imports, which jumped 83.3 percent to $1.37 billion in July of FY27. Export earnings slipped 1.6 percent to $4.35 billion during the month. The recent dollar injection marks a shift in the central bank’s operations, as BB had purchased around $6 billion from the market over the last 14 months. The regulator began buying dollars in July 2025 amid improved inflows and easing market pressure. An anonymous BB official told The Daily Star that the intervention is routine: “We will intervene in the market when the forex rate goes up or down.” He added that the country’s foreign exchange reserves are in a healthy position, leaving no room for concern. Reserves stood at $31.36 billion under the IMF’s BPM6 method as of September 10 this year, up from $25.68 billion during the same period last year, BB data showed.