$10 million transacted
in first week on Sayrafa

Next week pricing: LL12,000-LL12,200

The Central Bank (BDL) has disclosed that the volume of on the first week of transactions on its Sayrafa foreign exchange platform reached $10 million.

BDL said that for the coming week, Sayrafa will buy the dollar at LL12,000 and sell it at LL12,200.. The settlement occurs on Thursdays. The next settlement is on June 10.

The parallel market, with a volume estimated at an average of $40 million weekly, was pricing the dollar at LL13,400-LL13,500 midday on Friday (today).

Samir Hammoud, former Chairman of the Banking Control Commission, said: “Using $10 million per week is not a heavy burden on the Central Bank but the country needs much more for imports than $40 million per month. The monthly need used to be around $1.6 billion on average. It has fallen now to around $1 billion.”

He said that BDL aims to suck the liquidity in lira in order to reduce demand for the dollar for the purpose of hoarding it. The Central Bank also aims to provide foreign currencies to importers as it specifies that the foreign currency will be available with correspondent banks abroad, Hammoud said.