Dhaka, Sept. 3 -- Bangladesh Bank has bought close to $1 billion from commercial banks over the past month and a half, including $47.50 million on Tuesday as part of its move to stabilise the exchange rate and support remittance and export earnings.

Central bank spokesperson Arief Hossain Khan told reporters that since launching dollar auctions on 13 July, the regulator has so far purchased $950 million.

"Today, $47.50 million was taken from eight banks at exchange rates between Tk121.70 and Tk121.75 under the Multiple Price Auction system. The cut-off was Tk121.75," he said.

On 28 August, Bangladesh Bank had similarly bought $149.5 million through another auction. Although the initial plan was to purchase $30 million that day, the ban...