Govt LC debt repayment possible within six months: Governor
September 18, 20242 Mins Read

Jumbangla Desk: Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr. Ahsan H. Mansoor feels that repayment of government letter of credit (LC) liability is possible within the next six months.

He said this while talking to the representatives of Association of Bankers Bangladesh (ABB) and 122 correspondent banks on Tuesday (September 18). Later, Husne Ara Shikha, executive director and spokesperson of the bank presented this information to the journalists.

It has been found out in the open market that money exchangers are buying dollars from 121 taka 50 paisa to 122 taka 80 paisa yesterday. Selling from 122 taka to 122 taka 50 paisa.

Quoting the Governor, Hussain Ara Shikha said that the central bank is paying an average of 50 to 60 million dollars a day to meet the LC liabilities. 800 million dollars have been paid so far. The remaining $1.2 billion will be disbursed over the next five to six months. In the meeting, Governor Mansoor also requested the foreign banks to have confidence in the payment of government LC dues.

He also said that the difference between the dollar price in the banking channel and the curb market is now less than 1 percent. Apart from this, the reserves are also increasing due to the flow of remittances sent by expatriates. Expatriates are sending large numbers of remittances due to changing circumstances. This is the major reason for the increase in reserves. By this, depletion of reserves has been stopped.

According to him, the current reserve of Bangladesh Bank is two thousand 430 million dollars. However, according to the BPM-6 method of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), its amount is close to two thousand billion dollars.

Husnay Ara Shikha also said that the banks are now able to buy and sell dollars on their own as the crisis started to subside. The dollar exchange rate is market based. He is also optimistic that the foreign exchange market will remain stable as inter-bank transactions are active.