Dhaka, Aug. 27 -- The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has released more than 100 million new banknotes since June 1 this year, but those are hardly seen in the market.

The new notes do not contain Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's portrait.

The central bank began issuing notes of Tk 1,000, Tk 50, and Tk 20 denominations in early June, followed by Tk 100 on August 12.

So far, 36.2 million pieces of Tk 20, 39.2 million of Tk 50, 25 million of Tk 1,000, and 0.1 million of Tk 100 notes have been released.

People familiar with the matter say two factors may be driving the scarcity - people's psychological tendency to hold onto new notes and limited supply relative to demand.

Another possible reason is that some currency traders in major cities may have taken ...