Taka keeps falling against USD; forex reserves slip to $30.92 bn

04 May '23

2 min read

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Insights

Bangladesh's taka further lost its value against the US dollar recently after the central bank sold the greenback at Tk 104.5. The country's foreign exchange reserves keep falling; the reserves stood at $30.92 billion on May 2, down by 29.7 per cent year on year.
Remittances, the cheapest source of USD, fell by 16.27 per cent YoY to $1.68 billion in April.

Bangladesh’s currency taka further lost its value against the US dollar recently after the central bank sold the greenback at Tk 104.5. The country’s foreign exchange reserves keep falling. Data from the Bangladesh Bank showed the reserves stood at $30.92 billion on May 2, down by 29.7 per cent year on year (YoY).

In the first week of April, the central bank began selling US dollars at Tk 103 from Tk 102 earlier.

Banks on April 30 decided to pay Tk 110.70 per USD to migrant workers and non-resident Bangladeshis from May to encourage them to send money through formal channels.

They also decided to raise the buying rate to Tk 106 from Tk 105 for exporters to arrive at a single exchange rate gradually in place of the present multiple exchange rates.

Remittances, the cheapest source of US dollars for Bangladesh, fell by 16.27 per cent YoY to $1.68 billion in April this year. The flow, however, was up 2.36 per cent to $17.71 billion in the first 10 months of fiscal 2022-23, media outlets in the country reported.

According to the reform conditions attached to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) $4.7-billion loan programme, the government has to put in place a market-based interest rate mechanism by July this year moving away from the 9 per cent interest rate cap on loans.

The taka has been under pressure for nearly a year after the fallouts of the Russia-Ukraine war deepened the volatility in the global commodity and energy markets.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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