NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s shilling held its ground against the dollar on Friday, as traders were cautious before the introduction of oil import deals that should ease persistent FX demand from fuel marketers.
At 0906 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 135.90/136.10 per dollar, compared with 135.85/136.05 at Thursday’s close.
The shilling has lost about 9.2% against the dollar since the start of the year, hitting a fresh low on Friday of 135.95/136.15 before recovering slightly.
In a bid to staunch the fall of the shilling, the government signed oil import deals with companies in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in March, putting in place a longer credit period to stagger demand for dollars.
The deals are expected to kick-in in May.
“We’re seeing the usual (FX) demand from energy and end-month demand but everybody is taking a wait-and-see approach as we wait for the government-to-government deals to take effect,” said one trader at a commercial bank.
(Reporting by Hereward Holland; Editing by Alexander Winning)
