Money Market
Bangladesh Bank borrowed BDT 2,014.00 million through the Treasury bill auction held on Sunday, compared with BDT 6,193.00 million in the previous week's bid. Weighted average yields of t-bills of different tenors were almost unchanged from the previous bid.

Call money market started the week softly at 3.50 and 4.00 percent. The rate rose later to close the week between 9.00 and 10.00 percent.

International FX Market
The dollar steadied below a recent seven-week high against the euro on Monday, following Friday's call for a stronger dollar from US Secretary John Snow. Investors focused on Snow's comments, made in a series of television and radio interviews, that the US wanted to "do things", including cutting its deficit, to support the currencies strength. This raised talk that President George W Bush could introduce substantial cuts in the 2006 budget deficit and diminish a key negative for the long-suffering US dollar.

The dollar extended its pullback from seven-week highs against the euro on Tuesday as investors digested comments from US Treasury Secretary John Snow and braced themselves for Wednesday's release of US trade data.

On Wednesday the yen hit a seven-week high against the euro and held near a one-week peak versus the dollar after this week's comments by the European Central Bank's chief economists urging Asia to share the burden of the dollar weakness.

The dollar traded within half a yen of five-year lows against the yen but stabilized against the euro on Thursday, after a record US trade-deficit underscored structural weaknesses in the world's largest economy. The trade deficit in November widened above $60 billion on Wednesday for the first time to $60.3 bio, reinforcing the market's belief that the dollar needs to fall further to help correct the country's still growing trade imbalance. After the deficit figures, the dollar quickly wiped out all of its gains against the yen for the year and the euro jumped more than 1 percent versus the US currency.

-Standard Chartered Bank