The Central Bank of T&T said in a statement yesterday that it is aware of the difficulty some businessmen and members the public have been experiencing in obtaining foreign currency, in particular US dollars, from commercial banks and has been "actively and aggressively taking steps to address the situation.In the last three and a half months Central Bank has sold US$500,000,000 to the banking sector to alleviate tensions in the domestic foreign exchange market.
The following is a breakdown of these sales:
November, 2013–US$160,000,000
December, 2013–US$40,000,000
January, 2014–US$160,000,000
February, 2014–US$140,000,000
Total sold as of 21-2-14–US$500,000,000
The Central Bank typically supplies 25 per cent of the total foreign exchange needs of the market, with the remaining 75 per cent supplied by the banking system.It assured that other initiatives are currently being pursued to strengthen the operational efficiency of the domestic foreign exchange market and continues to monitor developments in the foreign exchange market to take appropriate action as needed.