NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s shilling touched an all-time low on Wednesday due to increased demand for dollars from oil companies and general goods importers, traders said.
At 0830 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 118.10/30 per dollar, compared with Tuesday’s close of 118.05/25.
Earlier on Wednesday it touched an all-time low of 118.25/45, Refinitiv data showed. The shilling is down 4.3% against the dollar so far this year.
“The dollar has moved higher, based on demand from fuel guys. So there is demand from energy sector and general merchants. So we expect the shilling to remain on the back foot,” a trader at one commercial bank said.
“(Dollar) inflows are there, mainly from diaspora (remittances), but nothing to match the demand,” the trader added.
The shilling has hit a series of record lows this year, partly driven by pressure from high oil prices and dollar demand from companies in the energy and manufacturing sectors.
It gets support from dollar inflows from tourism, agricultural exports, remittances and, periodically, from offshore investors buying government bonds.
………………………Shilling spot rates
…………………Shilling forward rates
…………………..Cross rates
…………………………….Local contributors
…………………..Central Bank of Kenya Index
…………………Kenyan Bonds contributor pages
……………Treasury bill yields
………………Central bank open market operations
…………………….Horizontal repo transactions
,…………….Daily interbank lending rate
………………………..Kenya Bond pricing
……………………………NSE-20 Share Index
……………………………NSE-25 Share Index
……………………………NSE All Share Index
………………………FT NSE Kenya 15 Index
…………………….. FT NSE Kenya 25 Index
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(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Alexander Winning)
