The Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM) has announced that it has sold US$40 million to the sectors especially the cooking oil, fuel and pharmaceutical sectors that need US dollars through Authorized Dealer (AD) licensed banks.

The CBM is conducting weekly auctions through banks to sell US dollars to sectors in need (especially cooking oil, fuel and pharmaceuticals).

The auction sells for US$1,750 per US dollar and resells to companies for only US$1,753. The sale will be made to AD licensed banks which sold the US dollars with the specified amounts to the companies that are vetted by the Central Committee for Trade and Commodity Flow.

The CBM sold US$25 million between September 13 and 17 and it sold US$15 million to nine AD licensed banks on September 20.

The CBM sold up to US$144.8 million at a foreign exchange auction from February 1 to September 15 in this year, according to the CBM.

Another US$15 million was sold on September 20, bringing the total to US$159.8 million from February 1 to September 20, 2021, according to the CBM.

The CBM sold US$6.8 million in February 2021, a foreign exchange auction, but did not sell in March.

The CBM sold US$12 million in April, US$24 million in May, US$12 million in June, US$39 million in July, US$28 million in August, US$15 million on September 13 and US$8 million on September 15.

The CBM is running a foreign exchange bid to reduce short-term exchange rate fluctuations and increase foreign reserves.

Rules and regulations for the CBM’s competitive auction have been set and in accordance with the instructions, the banks that have obtained the AD licensed banks traded in the foreign currency auction are the three state-owned banks, 19 local private banks and 13 foreign bank branches for buying and selling foreign currency.