Dollar exchange rates revised with Tk 107.50 cap

Under the decision, effective from next month, all the authorised dealer (AD) banks will offer a maximum of Tk 107.50 per dollar to overseas exchange houses for receiving inward remittances instead of the existing rate of Tk 108.

The latest announcement comes 15 days after the previous revision, following a joint meeting of the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB) and the Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers' Association (BAFEDA) held Monday at the Sonali Bank Limited headquarters in Dhaka. 

On the other hand, the rate will remain the same at Tk 99 for procuring all types of export proceeds from the exporters, while the interbank rate and settlement of import-payment obligations will remain unchanged at Tk 1.00 as spread over the weighted average of the exchange houses and the exporters' rates.

This weighted-average rate will be calculated on a five-day rolling- average basis by each bank based on its actual cost in the US dollar buying from the interbank market, excluding from the central bank.

"The decision will come into effect on October 1st, 2022. We re-fixed the rate after reviewing the overall foreign-exchange-market situation," BAFEDA chairman Afzal Karim told reporters after the meeting.

In a bid to stabilise the volatile foreign exchange market, the ABB and BAFEDA took the initiative to revise the rate as the local currency is maintaining a depreciating trend—mainly due to the higher outflow of foreign exchange compared to the inflow in the last few months.

In the meantime, Bangladesh's forex reserves have maintained a downturn in the last couple of months following higher import-payment obligations amid global price rises.

The forex reserves came down to $36.59 billion as of September 25, from $36.70 billion recorded on September 22.

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