BoU happy about current Shilling trends
Central Bank deputy governor Louis Kasekende has said they are happy with the current stability of the Shilling even though it is yet to move out of the volatile zone.
KAMPALA. Central Bank deputy governor Louis Kasekende has said they are happy with the current stability of the Shilling even though it is yet to move out of the volatile zone.
“…the Shilling has maintained a stable stance. It has not been volatile as it was about three weeks ago. We are satisfied about the current trend,” he said at a meeting organised between Bank of Uganda and media editors in Kampala yesterday.
Mr Kasekende also said it was hard for the Central Bank to bring down interest rates without looking at a number of fundamentals, key among them is the cost of money for commercial bank and other financial institutions.
Commercial banks, according to Dr Kasekende, pay a high price to encourage depositors save with them, which in the end feeds into interest rates.
The Shilling has largely been stable but it continues to maintain a volatile stance opening yesterday at Shs3,392.39, before losing to Shs3,401 on the buying side.
According to the Central Bank, since the beginning of the year, the Shilling has lost its value by more than 27 per cent amid a number of dollar injections totaling to more than $220 million (about Shs748 billion).
However, the Shillings troubles have been blamed on the strong recovery of the US economy and the strong dollar exacerbated by weakening economic fundamentals in Uganda among them low dollar inflows, raising inflation and high interest rates.
The meeting, sought to orient media managers on how to navigate a new Central Bank policy that seeks to protect financial consumers from exploitation as well as encouraging financial consumers to seek protection from Bank of Uganda in case of exploitation by commercial banks.
The policy seeks to sensitise consumers, especially in the area of knowing their rights on loan taking, lodging complaints as well as their rights as guarantors.
Kenyan shilling trend
Meanwhile at the regional level, the Kenyan central bank governor Mr Patrick Njoroge on Monday said the Kenya shilling fall was beyond CBK’s control. “We definitely want to be sure that if there is any movement, it is smooth and gradual,” he said adding that the large import bill, the shrinking exports, tourism slump, the huge public debt and other external factors were to blame for the Shilling’s troubles.
The Kenyan shilling has suffered an 11.7 per cent depreciated against the dollar. Currently, it is trading in the regions of 98/100.
