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Repatriation of sizeable funds by some multi-national companies (MNCs) and increased import payments in past few weeks have made US dollar stronger against the local currency.
The greenback gained further against Bangladesh Taka (BDT) and rose to a new high at Tk 66.25 Monday in the inter-bank foreign exchange market.
It rose by 0.05 per unit from Thursday's high at Tk 66.20 due to its short supply in the market, sources said.
The short supply of the greenback has further been aggravated in recent days mainly due to the annual profit transferred by the multi-national companies, particularly mobile phone operators, sources in the banking sector said.
At least three mobile companies have already transferred around US$ 50 million as annual profit to their respective overseas offices, the sources confirmed.
Besides, payments against imports, including petroleum products, are still contributing to the shortage of the greenback.
The banks quoted the dollar at Tk 66.15-66.25 on the day against Tk 66.15-66.20 of the previous day in the inter-bank foreign exchange market.
For opening LCs against imports, the nationalised commercial banks (NCBs) quoted the dollar at Tk 66.50, while the private commercial banks (PCBs) and foreign commercial banks (FCBs) sold the greenback at Tk 68.00-68.30 on the day against Tk 67.40-68.25 of the previous levels.
Some commercial banks have been facing problems in making their import payments against LCs in recent days due to short supply of the greenback in the inter-bank market.
The country's import payment crossed $500 million during the first three weeks of the current month, registering a 12.23 per cent growth over the same period of the previous year.
The import payment rose during the period due mainly to hike in prices of petroleum products in the global markets, the sources noted.
The import payment was settled at US$ 547 million during the first three weeks of this month against $487.88 million in the same period of the previous year, sources in the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said.
The import payment went up despite reluctance by most commercial banks to open fresh LCs excepting food items and capital machineries due to short supply of the greenback in the inter-bank foreign exchange market.
However, the value of letters of credit (LCs) against import was recorded at $615.20 million in the same period of this month, showing a 5.95 per cent negative growth over the same period of the last year. The import LCs were worth $654.18 million in the same period of the previous year.
On the other hand, remittances by the Bangladeshi expatriates stood at $198.87 million during the first half of the current month -- higher than that of the same period of previous month.
A total of $318.82 million was remitted by the Bangladeshi expatriates last November.
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