Taking cognisance of the falling export earnings, including from the readymade garment sector, Bangladesh’s central bank, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) has started allowing devaluation of the Taka against the US Dollar, as per media reports.
This the bank has allowed after a 5-month lull to support exporters who are faced with falling export earnings (export earnings witnessed a fall in July-September this fiscal year 2019-20) amid a slowdown in the global economy.
It may be mentioned here that in the first quarter of FY20, the country’s export fell by 2.94 per cent year-on-year to US $ 9.64 billion from US $ 9.94 billion in the same period of FY19.
In FY19, the export earnings increased to US $ 40.53 billion from what was US $ 36.66 billion in FY18.
As per the BB data, the interbank exchange rate of the US Dollar increased to Taka 84.7 on Sunday, rising in two phases from Taka 84.5 on 3 October this year.
The rate has been stable at Taka 84.5 since 3 May 2019.
The central bank has reportedly allowed devaluation of the Taka following requests from the banks, taking the drop in exports in the first quarter of the current fiscal year into consideration.
