March 17: Nepal Rastra Bank has increased the reference rate of dollar on Friday. According to the central bank, the buying rate of 1 US dollar is Rs 132.08 and the selling rate is Rs 132.68 on Friday. On Thursday, the buying rate of 1 US dollar was set at Rs 131.86 and the selling rate was Rs 132.46.

The exchange rate set by the commercial banks is lower than the exchange rate set by the NRB.

The commercial banks have fixed the minimum purchase rate of USD 1 between Rs 130.86 to Rs 131.7. Among the 21 commercial banks, Standard Chartered Bank offers the lowest purchase rate of USD at Rs 130.86 while NIC Asia Bank and Kumari Bank have fixed the highest purchase rate at Rs 131.7.

Likewise, the minimum selling rate of USD 1 has been fixed between Rs 132.05 to Rs 132.35. Everest Bank offers the minimum selling rate for US dollars at Rs 132.05 while Nabil Bank, Nepal Investment Mega Bank, Prime Bank and NMB Bank have fixed the highest selling rate at Rs 132.35 per dollar.