After a meeting with the visiting IMF team, Finance Minister Saifur Rahman said, "The IMF does not like intervention (in the foreign exchange market), as it is a free economy."

Thomas R Rumbaugh, advisor, Asia Pacific Department of IMF, is leading the team.

Regarding the high dollar prices, Saifur said the dollar price mentioned by the media is usually the highest and a small volume of dollars are actually transacted at such high rates. The larger portion of transaction is actually done at much lower prices, he added.

Dollar was sold yesterday at highest Tk 71.85 in case opening letter of credit, up by Tk 0.20 from the previous day. In the inter-bank foreign exchange market, dollar was sold at Tk 67.95, up by Tk 0.15 from the previous day.

The IMF mission also asked the government to limit different kinds of tax facilities including tax exemptions and tax holiday. They are also going to submit written proposals in this regard to the government.