Kenya Shilling Weakens Fifth Day, Set for the Lowest in 3 Months

Kenya’s shilling slumped for the fifth day, headed for the lowest in more than three months.

The currency of East Africa’s biggest economy depreciated as much as 0.3 percent to 83.83 per dollar and traded 0.2 percent weaker at 83.70 at 1:16 p.m. A close at this level would be the lowest since Feb 2.

Kenya’s central bank accepted all 7.02 billion shillings ($83.8 million) of bids received for seven-day repurchase agreements, said Godfrey Putunoi, a dealer at the bank’s money- market department.

The weighted average rate for the repos was 16.522 percent, he said by phone today from Nairobi. The bank had offered 12 billion shillings, he said.

Tanzania’s shilling weakened 0.2 percent to 1,581.50 to the dollar while the Ugandan shilling strengthened 0.1 percent to 2,468 to the dollar.

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