The Kenya Shilling saw improved performance against major currencies last week. Below is a table comparing its performance against major currencies in the past two weeks:
The Kenya Shilling last week appreciated against the US dollar and Sterling Pound by 1.12 percent and 0.16 percent respectively. This represented an average gain of KES 0.94 against the dollar, almost one full shilling from the previous week’s average, while the average gain against the Pound was KES 0.21. Similarly, the shilling appreciated against the Euro by 0.50 percent to trade at an average of KES 106.54 last week compared to KES 107.07 the previous week.
These forex gains were most likely attributed to the boosting of the government’s foreign exchange reserves by $360 million through the receipt of the second part of a $600 million syndicated loan from the IMF . According to data from the CBK, Kenya’s foreign exchange reserves now stand at KES $4.9 billion up from $4.5 billion earlier this month.
Meanwhile, the Kenya shilling showed slightly declined performance against EAC currencies which could be simply due to normal variation, so it will be interesting to observe the currency fluctuations this week.