CBM combats against illegal foreign currency trading

Those online businesses involved in illegal foreign currency trading will face a strict action under the rules of the Foreign Exchange Supervisory Committee, the Central Bank of Myanmar issued a notification on 27 August.
Furthermore, unregistered social media sites spared public concerns with exaggerating messages for the fuel oil, exchange rate and foreign currency reserve.
They posted highly exaggerated stories on social media stating that shortage of foreign currency will push the exchange rate to devalue the local currency rate and shortage of fuel oil will drive the price up.
The department concerned, fuel importers and banking institutions are working together on the fuel price to decline and easy process to get foreign currency.
Therefore, the CBM’s statement mentioned not to worry about that and not to trust manipulators. Those online businesses executing illegal foreign currency trading will face legal actions under the existing rules of the committee.
At present, Fed interest rate hike in recent days made the dollar strengthen. The exchange rate of other currencies against the safe-haven dollar is depreciating.
In a bid to strengthen the local currency and support economic growth, the governments of the world countries are governing the currency markets with fiscal policies, foreign reserve, tax exemption and increased government spending.
Myanmar is also stepping up for economic growth and financial stability with trade and financial policies amid the fluctuation of global oil prices and global trade imbalance.
The CBM set the reference exchange rate for the US dollar at K2,100, whereas the dollar is valued at over K3,000 in the unofficial FX market.
The CBM has directed a 0.3 per cent trading band to fix the floor and ceiling exchange rates. However, there is a gap of K1,000 between the reference rate and unofficial rate in the local forex market.—TWA/GNLM