Dhaka, Aug 14 (UNB) – Interest rate in the country’s call money market went up to 14 percent against surge in demands by the clients on Tuesday.

However, the interest rate was recorded as high as 16 percent in the transactions by non-bank financial institutions.
 
To meet the surge in demands with huge number of clients withdrawing money from banks to meet their Eid and other expenses, many banks borrowed from other banks through the call money market at the highest interest rate in recent days.

Normally, the interest rate in the call money market remains around 5-6 percent.
 
Before the holy Eid-ul-Fitr, Tuesday was the last banking operation day as the festival and other holidays will start from Wednesday.

However, the branches of all commercial banks in capital Dhaka, Savar, Ashulia, Gazipur, Narayanganj, Khulna and Chittagong will remain open from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm on Thursday to help garment industries pay wages and allowances to its employees.

The branches of all scheduled banks will also remain open fulltime on August 18 (Saturday).
 
According to Bangladesh Bank’s data and statistics, an amount of Tk 5207.50 crore was transacted in the call money market on Tuesday with the highest interest rate of 14 percent while the lowest rate was 7 percent.
 
An official of BRAC Bank told UNB that though few of their branches in the city will operate on Thursday (Aug 16) and Saturday (Aug 18), they believe transactions will be lesser than on the normal days.
 
“Actually, we faced the highest number of clients today (Tuesday) who rushed in to withdraw money from banks. This was a reason for the interest rate going up in the call money market,” he said.