The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The rush to withdraw cash ahead of the holy Eid-ul-Azha from the scheduled banks led the inter-bank call money rate to rise as high as 17 per cent yesterday, sources said.

The call rate ranged between 14 per cent and 17 per cent while few transactions even settled at the higher level during the day's transactions.

"It's a tradition that demand for cash withdrawal increases ahead of festivals," one of the sources said.

This year, he said, the call rate got momentum on Monday to range between 14 per cent and 16 per cent. But the rate has been 6 to 7 per cent during the whole year.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Bank held repo auction yesterday to lend the money market Tk 408 crore at 8.5 per cent interest, mitigating the cash pressure to some extent.

Fund managers said Sonali Bank had to dispatch Tk 350 crore to its branches Tuesday to meet the increased demand for cash withdrawal while Janata Bank sent Tk 250 crore and Agrani Bank Tk 225 crore to their respective branches.

Major lender banks of the day were Sonali, Janata, Agrani, National, IFIC, UCBL and The City Bank Limited while major borrowers included Rupali Bank and other small banks, sources informed.