Kenyan shilling weakens against the dollar

The Kenyan shilling weakened against the dollar on Friday under pressure from surplus liquidity in the local money market and increased oil importer dollar demand as market players eyed the effects of Kenya’s 2019/20 budget presented yesterday by the finance minister, traders said.

Commercial banks quoted the shilling at 101.65/85 per dollar, compared with 101.55/75 at Thursday’s close.

On Thursday, Kenya’s finance minister announced the government will cut its budget deficit in the 2019/20 (July-June) financial year to 5.6 per cent of GDP and intends to fund the gap through net local borrowing of Sh283.5 billion.