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BB goes easy on imports to drive demand for dollar

Star Business Report
The central bank yesterday took a U-tum on its tight import policy and asked commercial banks to increase funding for genuine importers, an official said yesterday.
The decision came to tackle the possibility of a further slide in the exchange rate.
The taka has been appreciating against the dollar since the last quarter of 2012: one US dollar, which sold at upwards of Tk 84 in June last year, now trades close to Tk 79.
Higher imports will fuel demand for the dollar, which will ultimately check the continued appreciation of the taka against the greenback.
“We've given the message to the banks to boost demand for imports so that exporters and remitters are not hurt,” BB Deputy Governor SK Snr Chowdhury told reporters after a meeting with the chief executive officers of the country's 47 scheduled banks.
In 2012, imports nosedived by over 9 percent. Imports fell by 4.31 percent year-on-year in the July-November period of fiscal 2012-13, according to data from BB.
The declining imports have fuelled the country's foreign exchange reserve to over $13.4 billion in recent days, compelling the central bank to buy US dollars from banks to stop further depreciation.
The meeting, chaired by BB Gover-
nor Atiur Rahman also involved discussions on the rising spread (difference between lending and deposit rates), charging of higher lending rates by some banks, banks’ internal governance, private credit and national payment switch.
The issue of using a bank's surplus funds to meet another bank's deficiency in maintaining capital reserve ratio and statutory liquidity ratio was also talked about at lengths
Nurul Amin, chairman of Association of Bankers Bangladesh, also con-
firmed to the reporters about the central bank's instruction to boost import demands.
“Imports of capital machinery have gone down, but it creates industries and employment,” said Amin, also the managing director of NCC Bank.
Overall private sector credit growth could go up to 22 percent from the present 18.3 percent considering the country's economy, he said.
“I hope credit demand will increase in the days to come.”
Earlier, the governor warned the
bankers on the rising spread rate, which now stands at 5.41 percent.
“If the banks failed to bring down the spread within 5 percent by March this year, we will go for regulatory actions,” said the BB governor.
But his deputy Chowdhury said that reducing spread is not so easy, with banks not given any timeframe in this regard.
The governor also cautioned bankers about disbursing loans without conducting a credit risk grading of the borrowers.