Bangladesh Bank has acquired $353 million from 26 banks today.
On September 15, 2025, Bangladesh Bank made a significant purchase of $353 million from various banks. This move has been part of a larger strategy to manage market liquidity as the central bank has been active in the dollar market.
Highlights of this recent activity include:
- Pressure on exchange rates from imports has been eased.
- Strong remittances and export inflows have helped reduce pending import invoices.
- Total import letters of credit (LCs) for FY25 increased by just 7.24%.
- Imports of capital machinery have dropped by 25.4%, and intermediate goods have gone down by 6.3%.
- Private sector credit saw a growth of 6.52% in July 2025.
- Public sector borrowings increased by 14.5%.
- As of September 14, 2025, reserves stood at $25.67 billion.
Over the past two months, Bangladesh Bank has acquired more than $1.7 billion from commercial banks, including the $353 million purchased today. This auction process began on July 13, 2025.
Today’s purchase involved exchange rates between TK121 and TK121.75. Just a week ago, on September 9, the central bank bought $265 million through a different auction at a rate of TK121.70.
An Associate Managing Director of a private bank mentioned that thanks to robust remittances and export inflows, banks have been able to clear their delayed import invoices, particularly for fuel. This reduced demand for imports has led to a situation where dollar supply is surpassing demand, thereby lowering the exchange rate.
For the fiscal year 2024-25, total import letters (LCs) amounted to $690.1 billion, reflecting a modest increase of 7.24% from the previous year.
Interestingly, while overall imports have been rising, the initiation of capital machinery LCs—an important barometer of industrial growth—has actually decreased. In 2023, $1.74 billion worth of capital machinery LCs were opened, down 25.41% from the year before.
The trend continues, with interim product LC openings also down by 6.26%.
Credit growth in the private sector remains relatively weak. According to Bangladesh Bank data, private sector credit growth in July was reported at 6.52%, which is a slight uptick from 6.49% in June. Some industry experts are concerned that this stagnation hints at a lack of investment demand as businesses proceed cautiously with new initiatives.
Conversely, public sector credit growth has surged to 14.51%, attributed to increased government borrowing to manage budget deficits and project financing needs.
However, state-owned enterprises are seeing negative credit growth at -2.39%, suggesting these entities are either repaying existing loans or curbing new borrowings.
A managing director from a private bank, preferring to remain anonymous, noted that strong remittances will likely exceed outflows as imports decline and pressures from foreign debt repayments lessen.
He remarked, “Our banks are holding onto foreign currency, but inflows are exceeding limits.” This has prompted banks to sell dollars back to the central bank as necessary.
Central bank data as of September 14, 2025, indicates that Bangladesh’s foreign currency reserves stand at $25.677 billion.
