Dhaka, May 9 -- The US dollar almost disappeared in the unofficial kerb market amid a sharp rise in its price on Thursday, a day after Bangladesh Bank raised the exchange rate by Tk 7 in a single step.

The central bank introduced a crawling peg system on Wednesday to determine the exchange rate of the US dollar with the taka. By applying the system the regulator increased the exchange rate of a dollar by Tk7 in a single day.

As a result, the greenback was hard to be found in the kerb market amid reports of hoarding of the currency by traders for profits in the future. Desperate buyers reportedly even paid up to Tk125 for one dollar in the kerb market to meet their travel and treatment expenses abroad.

On Thursday, Munira Ahsan, a priva...