Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder resigned yesterday, according to an official aware of the development.

The central bank chief sent his resignation letter virtually to the official concerned at the finance ministry. He stepped down citing health reasons, the official said.

The development came four days after Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled the country in the face of an uprising.

On Wednesday, more than 100 BB officials staged protests in front of the governor's office demanding his resignation.

Rouf, the 12th governor of the central bank, has been absent from his office since then.

The Daily Star could not reach the governor over the phone for comments as he did not respond to calls.

A former senior secretary at the finance ministry, Rouf joined as the central bank governor in July of 2022 when Bangladesh was facing the challenges of rising inflation, falling forex reserves and depreciation of taka.

His team had been unsuccessful in arresting the fall in the forex reserves, stopping the depreciation of taka, containing the increase in defaulted loan and above all fighting inflation, which hit 9.7 percent in the FY24, the highest in 12 years.

Economists said this was because of the central bank's failure to timely let the market forces to determine the interest rate and exchange rates.

Rouf, who was close to the former prime minister, faced criticism from different quarters after he had taken the initiative to merge weak banks with strong ones in a bid to salvage the vulnerable lenders and improve the image of the banking sector which was suffering from confidence crisis because of high defaulted loans, irregularities and weak governance.

He came under criticism again a few months ago when he imposed restrictions on the entry of journalists to the central bank.

The BB relaxed the restrictions after the fall of Sheikh Hasina's government.