Kenya's Shilling Deprecaites Most in a Week as Oil Importers Buy Greenback
Kenya’s shilling depreciated the most in more than a week against the dollar as oil importers speculated crude prices will climb further and bought the U.S. currency to make purchases before the increase.
The currency of East Africa’s biggest economy weakened as much as 0.3 percent to 84.83 per dollar, the lowest since March 30, and was trading less than 0.1 percent up at 84.54 at 12:40 p.m. in the capital, Nairobi.
“The shilling is weakening as oil importers seek more greenback on the anticipation of global crude surge in the coming days,” Steve Lagat, a dealer at Nairobi-based CfC Stanbic Bank Ltd., said in an phone interview today.
Brent crude oil traded at $121.96 a barrel, within $1.41 cents of 31-month high reached yesterday. The price has rallied on concern that conflict in Africa and the Middle East may curtail supplies.
To contact the reporter on this story: Johnstone Ole Turana in Nairobi at jturana@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.
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