Bangladesh Bank has purchased US$134 million from five commercial banks in its latest foreign-exchange auction, pushing total dollar procurement past the US$1 billion mark since mid-July.

The central bank confirmed it has now bought US$1.13 billion since July 13 under the free-floating exchange rate system. Officials say the intervention is designed to ease volatility in the dollar-taka market, bolster foreign reserves, and provide liquidity support to banks.

Thursday’s auction was conducted under the Multiple Price Auction method, with a cut-off rate of Tk121.75 per dollar. According to bankers, the purchases have helped stabilise the exchange rate and injected more than Tk137 billion into the banking system.

The drive comes ahead of a scheduled US$1.5 billion settlement with the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) on Sunday. Despite the outflow, officials expect reserves to remain above US$30 billion.

Bangladesh Bank data show that reserves stood at US$31.43 billion as of 3 September, up from US$31.18 billion in August and US$29.8 billion at the end of July.

The dollar-buying has also supported the reference exchange rate, which climbed from Tk 121.68 on August 28 to Tk 121.80 by September 4.