BAFEDA, bankers raise dollar rates for remittance, export proceeds again

Business Report :
The Bangladesh Foreign Exchange Dealers Association (BAFEDA) on Wednesday raised expatriate earnings by Tk0.50 and export proceeds by Tk1 to the dollar, which will be effective from Thursday.
In the case of expatriate income, now every dollar will get Tk108.50. Earlier, this rate was Tk108.
In terms of export earnings, every dollar will get Tk107 from Thursday. Earlier, this was Tk106.
This decision was taken by the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB), and Bafeda , during a meeting on the day.
Banks traded each dollar ranging from Tk108.50 to Tk108.75 on May 22, down 24.28% from a year ago, data from Bangladesh Bank showed.
The interbank exchange rate increased almost every working day this month after starting out at Tk106.80 per dollar on May 1.
The local currency has been facing depreciation for the last one year due to higher import payments and slower-than-expected export earnings and remittance inflow.
In the first nine months of FY23, import bills dropped 12.33% year-on-year to $53.93 billion.
As a result, the trade deficit, which occurs when a country’s imports exceed its exports, declined 41.6% year-on-year to $14.61 billion in July-March.
In April, remittance declined 16.27% year-on-year to $1.68 billion.
Overall, money transferred by migrant workers and non-resident Bangladeshis living abroad grew 2.36% to $17.71 billion in July-April.
Export earnings dipped 16% year-on-year in April with overall receipts growing by 5.38% to $45.67 billion in the first 10 months of the ongoing fiscal year.