The shilling slightly lost the battle against the US dollar toward the end of last week following high demand from oil and energy sector, market reports show. In last two months the shilling held bravely against the greenback thanks to proceeds from agriculture exports that helped the market to meet demand for US dollars.
But last week, the shilling began to weaken and analysts said it may weaken further as the strong greenback demand was forecasted during the week. The pair, according to CRDB Bank report, closed at the levels of 1614/1624 which was higher than as Wednesday’s close of 1613/1623.
“Shilling continued to depreciate against the greenback on Thursday trading session, this was the result of demand of greenback from the Oil and Energy Sector,” CRDB said in its daily report issued last Friday.
National Microfinance Bank (NMB) said the shilling remained on a weaker footing as demand persisted during Thursday’s session. “The dollar/shilling pair closed at 1,610/1,625, and the local currency may weaken further as strong demand is forecasted next week…demand next week may pose risk to the local currency,” NMB said on its e-market report.
Another bank, Barclays, said the shilling slightly lost its gains and the market was relatively muted with less activity from the corporate. “More activity expected in the coming week as we approach month end,” Barclays said.
However, Standard Chartered Bank said the market was not overwhelmed by demand as supply was sufficient to cover them. “We expect market to continue being flat today (last Friday) with a slight bias on a stronger shilling as inflows expected to exceed demand today,” Standard Chartered said.
The bank added: “Low to medium price volatility anticipated in the market.” The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) data show that the shilling has actual appreciated since the beginning of this month. The shilling opened the month at 1621/17 and was traded at 1619/64 when the interbank foreign exchange market closed last Friday