The Central Bank of Kenya’s official forex exchange data is still placing the Kenya shillong above the 130 mark against the US dollar. However, projections show that the shillong will most likely recover back to 120s by the end of this week if not sooner.
On Tuesday morning, ths shilling opened at 130.2203. This was a recovery from the 130.4655 closing mark the shilling had recorded against the domineering US currency the previous day.
The performance of the shilling three weeks ago is highly different with what the market is witnessing today.
In mid-March, the Central Bank of Kenya officially quoted the shilling at 135.14 against the US dollar. The CBK further quoted the shilling at 172.34 against the Sterling Pound and 147.3 against the Euro. The shilling was quoted at 100.09 against the Canadian dollar and 89.04 against the Australian dollar.
Today, the shilling has recoveres by 5 bob against the US dollar. One Sterling Pound is being quoted at 164.8263 shillings while one Euro is exchanging at 141.3802. The Canadian dollar is exchanging at 95.8912 while the Australian dollar is exchanging at 86.0431.
At the start of 2024, the shilling was trading at 122 and 110 respectively for the Canadian dollar and the Australian dollar.
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The Kenya shilling has recovered by over 15 per cent in the first quarter of 2024 after it dipped to an embarrassing low of 161 to the US dollar in January 2024. This means that commercially, the shilling has recovered by up to 31 units against the US dollar.
As the shilling continues to gain against the US dollar, its appreciation has led to the reduction in public debt by over Sh. 800 billion. At the same time, the debt to GDP ratio has declined by over 5 per cent.
