Uganda’s central bank said on Thursday that it was selling foreign currency to support the shilling. The bank sent a notice to lenders after recent rate hikes failed to stop the currency from falling. The shilling hit record lows against the dollar, forcing the bank to step in today.
NAIROBI, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Uganda's central bank said in a notice to banks on Thursday that it was in the market selling an undisclosed amount of foreign currency.
"BOU (The Bank of Uganda) is in the FX market on the sell side," the notice said, without elaborating.
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Uganda's currency, the shilling , has been under pressure for weeks, sliding to repeated record lows against the U.S. dollar.
The shilling recovered some ground on the day the rate hike was announced, but it then resumed its losing trend and is now trading weaker than at the time of the hike.
Reporting by Vincent Mumo Nzilani and George Obulutsa; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Alexander Winning