US dollar price rises up to Tk 125 in kerb market

The price of US dollar rose up to Tk 125 in the kerb market today just a day after the Bangladesh Bank introduced crawling peg, a flexible exchange rate system.

Today, money exchanges in Dhaka's Motijheel were seen selling each US dollar at about Tk 7 higher than its yesterday's rate of Tk 117.2 per dollar.

In a rare move, the central bank yesterday devalued the local currency by Tk 7 to Tk 117, the sharpest slide in a day against the mighty dollar, alongside introducing the crawling peg.

Mostofa Ahmed, owner of Suganda Money Changer, told The Daily Star that the US dollar has become dearer as people have increased their purchase of the American greenback because of a possible price hike in future.

The US dollar price rose by Tk 7 in the kerb market just a day after the increase of the official rate, he added.

Helal Uddin, another money changer at Motijheel, said he has stopped trading the American currency in the kerb market at the increased rate.

"If we trade USD at higher rates, law enforcement agencies will fine us."

Not only the kerb market operators, banks have also increased the USD rate in case of opening of letters of credit (LCs).

Some banks have raised the rate by Tk 3-4 from the previous rate, according to the industry insiders.

Before the commencement of the crawling peg, the official US dollar rate for LC opening was Tk 110 when banks used to charge in between Tk 114-115.