Uganda's Money Markets Face Tight Liquidity Conditions

11 February 2023
The Observer (Kampala)
By Geofrey Serugo

The Ugandan shilling maintained trading within a narrow range between the 3,665 and 3,685 levels throughout the whole week.

With balanced activity on the supply and demand side, flows remained healthy from NGOs, commodity exporters and other sectors and were comfortably balanced by the pockets of corporate demand.

Mid-month taxes will start to set in during the week but the anticipation that activity will also slowly pick up in the market in the coming weeks. For now, the unit is still likely to buoy within the 3,650-3,700 trading range.

Catherine Kijjagulwe, head of trading at Absa Bank Uganda said money markets continued to face tight liquidity conditions with overnight yields at averages of 12 per cent. Bank of Uganda held a bond switch auction for the 13th April 2023 maturity and yields in the 3-year, 5-year, 10-year, 15-year and 20-year cleared at averages of 14.000%, 15.000%, 15.000%, 16.242% and 16.300% respectively.

Bank of Uganda is scheduled to hold a treasury bill auction next Wednesday, February 15, 2023. The Kenyan shilling remains under pressure with the very limited flow against continued dollar demand build-up as businesses struggle to get their requirements filled. The unit continues to trade within the 125.00-132.00 trading levels overall weak against the dollar.

Meanwhile, the Euro strengthened on Thursday to touch highs of $1.0792 (Shs 3,968) and closed the session at $1.0735(Shs 3,947).

The Pound touched highs of $1.2093 (Shs 4,446) on Thursday and closed the day strong at $1.2119 (Shs 4,456) as the UK GDP figure print was awaited on Friday.

Crude oil prices continued to edge lower as US inventories continued to build up and investors continue to worry about future Fed rate hikes. Brent Crude traded at $84.43 (Shs 310,449) a barrel and West Texas Intermediate at $77.90 (Shs 286,438) a barrel.

Gold traded at $1859.76 (Shs 683,8337) an ounce.

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