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The price of the dollar has increased by a maximum of Tk 4 within a day in the open market in Bangladesh.
According to media reports, money exchange companies in the Gulshan and Paltan areas of Dhaka are taking up to Tk 102 for a US dollar on Tuesday.
Earlier, the Bangladesh Bank devalued the Taka against the US dollar for the third time in two months to stabilise the currency market.
According to UNB, several businesses on Tuesday blamed that they cannot buy US dollars due to the higher price. On the other hand, banks also sell per US dollar at Tk 92 to Tk 93 on the day.
However, the price of dollars in the kerb market has grown even more. The traders said that they are not able to get dollars outside the bank now.
“I had to pay Tk100.50 to Tk101 to buy one US dollar from the kerb market on Tuesday. On Monday, the dollar was sold at Tk97.20 and Tk 97.30,” Said Abdullah Al-Mamun, a trader of old Dhaka, who is involved in import trading.
He said that due to increasing dollar prices every day, some people are stocking dollars, purchasing it from the kerb market, which is pushing the price of dollars in the open market.
On Tuesday, state-owned Sonali, Janata, and Agrani banks sold per US dollar at Tk 92 to Tk92.50 while the private sector Eastern Bank also sold at Tk 92.50.
Md Serajul Islam, Executive Director and spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank, said, “The open market economy now relies on the market situation. Due to increased domestic consumption, the import is under more pressure compared to export.”
In such a situation banks are unable to meet the growing demand for forex, this is why the dollar price has increased a bit, he said.
The decline of Covid-19 cases was met with a global hike at prices of commodities as the Russia-Ukraine war caused the supply and delivery costs to go up.
As a result, the demand for dollars rose and the Bangladeshi taka, like many other currencies in the world, began losing value.