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Kenyan shilling drops to a new historic low of 120 against the US Dollar
Kenyan shilling dropped a new historic low on Thursday morning, hovering towards 119.85 units to the dollar amid controversies surrounding Presidential-elect William Ruto’s victory in the keenly contested Kenyan presidential elections on August 9, 2022.
Economic analysts say the Shilling is feeling the heat of global inflation.
As one financial analyst puts it, a depreciating shilling means imports, such as petrol, food, and raw materials, will become more expensive. This will further push up the household cost of living as importers pass the hiked bill to consumers. Businesses which rely on export markets would also feel the heat, deepening the worries in the market about the supply of hard currencies.
In other news, the Ghana cedi is now the worst-performing currency among Africa’s top currencies, according to Bloomberg. The Ghana cedi has depreciated by 35 per cent against the US dollar this year, making it the second worst-performing currency in the world after Sri Lanka’s Rupee.
Similarly, Nigeria’s naira fell to N698/$1 on the black market today, despite multiple interventions by the Central Bank of Nigeria to defend the Naira. The exchange rate at the official Investors and Exporters window also depreciated in the last trading session, falling marginally by 0.08% to close at N431/$1 from N430.67/$1 recorded on Tuesday, 23rd August 2022.
According to Nairametrics, the exchange rate had recovered from the shocking downturn recorded in late July when the naira dipped as low as N718 to a dollar. However, surging demand for foreign exchange and liquidity crunch as driven the rate upward and depreciated the local currency at the unofficial market.
