The time is right for Bangladesh to move towards a more flexible exchange rate regime, said Chris Papageorgiou, mission chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to Bangladesh.

This stability is anticipated to curb volatility in domestic commodity prices and bolster overall economic resilience.

The exchange rate of the taka and the US dollar is going to be turned more flexible in line with suggestions of International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to Bangladesh Bank.

The chief executives of at least three private commercial banks told The Daily Star that the BB had verbally allowed them to quote Tk 1 more than the exchange rate to collect US dollars amid the ongoing forex crunch.

This is nothing more than a poor trick that will eventually produce no real gain.

Beneficiaries of wage earner remitters receive a 2.50 percent cash incentive on top of the market-determined exchange rate for any amount of remittance inflow.

The Bangladesh Bank has asked 10 banks’ managing directors why their treasury heads should not be penalised for their involvement in dollar rate manipulation this year.

Bangladesh’s conglomerates have lost Tk 65,000 crore over the past one year because of the fluctuation of the value of the taka against the US dollar as loans have become costlier due to the volatile global economy, said a noted economist yesterday. 

The major challenges for Bangladesh will be keeping inflation under control while maintaining currency rate stability in the coming days, according to the Bangladesh Bank's annual report.

Bangladesh does not have too many policy options other than reducing consumption of goods and services and making the exchange rate flexible in order to ensure macroeconomic stability, said a central bank report.

This fiscal year alone, the Bangladesh Bank has supplied more than $4.5 billion to the market to support the exchange rate, while the import bill averages $6 billion a month.

The interest rate cap on loans, the frequent changes to the exchange rate regime and a relaxed attitude to enforcing austerity measures are the major challenges facing Bangladesh in restoring stability in the economy. 

Bangladesh Bank can better fix the currency turmoil by freeing both interest rate and exchange rate to adjust over time.

If things are bad, there must be a good reason for it.

He came up with the remark while delivering speech at the “First MAM Kazemi Memorial Lecture on Monetary Policy” held in Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management.

Bangladesh Bank has asked banks to convert major export earnings of businesses into taka immediately as it looks to increase the supply of US dollars in the economy.

The Bangladesh Bank today asked banks to suggest uniform exchange rates of the taka against the US dollar in order to bring back the stability in the country’s foreign exchange market.

The foreign currency reserve of Bangladesh hits a new record crossing a $ 27-billion mark.