Bangladesh Bank has bought a total of $1.129 billion from commercial banks over the past one and a half months, crossing the $1 billion mark in its continued efforts to stabilise the exchange rate and ensure liquidity for remittance and export settlements.

The central bank purchased $134 million from five banks on wednesday through a multiple price auction at rates ranging around Tk121.75, with the cut-off set at Tk121.75, Bangladesh Bank Executive Director and spokesperson Areif Hossain Khan confirmed.

With this latest intervention, the central bank’s total dollar purchases since July 13 have reached $1.129 billion through nine auctions.

Bangladesh Bank introduced the auction mechanism on July 13, when it bought $171 million at Tk121.50.

This was followed by $313 million on July 15 at the same rate. On July 23, it purchased $10 million at a cut-off of Tk121.95.

The bank went on to buy $45 million on August 7 at Tk121.35–121.50, $83 million on August 10 at Tk121.47–121.50, and $149.5 million on August 28 at Tk121.70.

Most recently, it purchased $47.5 million on September 2 at Tk121.70–121.75.

According to the latest central bank data, Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves stood at $31.43 billion in gross terms and $26.45 billion under the BPM6 accounting method as of September 3.

Officials said the central bank’s interventions are designed to contain volatility in the forex market while ensuring adequate supply of dollars to banks dealing with remittance and export flows.