Ugandan shilling sags on demand from commercial banks, central bank

KAMPALA: The Ugandan shilling weakened on Monday, undermined by heavy demand from commercial banks and the central bank at a time when hard currency inflows were thin.

At 1052 GMT commercial banks quoted the shilling at 3,370/3,380, weaker than Friday's close of 3,355/3,365.

"There's considerable demand from commercial banks and also from the central bank while inflows have been scant," said Faisal Bukenya, head of market making at Barclays Bank. Bank of Uganda regularly buys dollars for its reserves.

A note from Bank of Africa said the shilling, which is down 18 percent against the dollar since Jan. 1, was likely to weaken to the 3,400 level by Friday this week.