Kenya shilling under pressure from dollar demand

NAIROBI: The Kenyan shilling weakened on Thursday as oil importers sought dollars to meet their end-of-month obligations.

At 0730 GMT, commercial banks posted the shilling at 86.75/85, down from the previous day's close of 86.65/75.

"We are still seeing demand coming in, predominantly from oil marketers ... we could see this demand continue well into next week," said Peter Mutuku, a corporate dealer at Bank of Africa.

Before the demand kicked in, the shilling had been held in a tight band of 86.30-86.70 per dollar. Pressure from lower overnight borrowing rates on the interbank market were offset by the central bank's mopping up of excess liquidity.