Parastatals to feel the pinch with 30% budget cuts
With mounting pressure to curb extravagant spending in his administration, President Ruto has ordered CEOs of State Corporations to slash
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Central Bank of kenya
TDB loan bolsters Kenya’s forex reserves to 4-month high
Kenya’s foreign exchange reserves experienced a notable upswing, surging by Kes18.8 billion (approximately $117 million) within the past week. This
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Diaspora inflows surge to Sh670Bn amid shilling’s slide
Kenyans living and working overseas sent home a record Kes670 billion in the 12 months ending December 2023. This marked
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European Investment Bank and CBK team up to drive climate finance initiatives
The European Investment Bank and the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) have launched a new climate finance best practice initiative
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Is CBK yield curve inverting signaling recession?
Short term bonds and bill rates are slowly rising above longer dated government papers setting the stage for what is called an inverted yield curve that is traditionally used to signal oncoming recession. Pressure to repay local loans have pushed short-term interest rates above 11 percent on the three, six and one-year Treasury Bills even as three short-term bonds costs rose above 14 percent. An inverted yield curve occurs when yields on shorter-dated Treasuries rise above those for longer-term ones suggesting that while investors expect interest rates to rise in the near term, they believe that higher borrowing costs will eventually hurt the economy. Analysts…
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Kenyan banking industry on edge as cash reserves decrease
While American banks started collapsing when the Federal Reserve started raising rates, Kenyan lenders have mostly remained stable since the Central Bank Rate (CBR) was hiked 250 basis points over the last one year, but cracks are beginning to show. Lenders liquidity position has dipped to 49.9 percent in the three months this year, from 50.8 percent at the end of December according to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) first quarter credit survey. CBK’s Banking Supervision report also shows that commercial banks hit record high borrowing of Kes147 billion from CBK, the lender of last resort to maintain liquidity requirements taking up about Kes40…
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Falling shilling pushes I&M to hold merger fees in dollars
I&M Bank want shareholders to approve conversion of their buyout kitty to US dollars to beat market volatility since merger and acquisition transactions are conducted in greenback. The lender told shareholders it needed approvals for setting aside not more than $75 million in a kitty created seven year ago to undertake an acquisition, a merger, enter into a joint venture agreement or set up a new (greenfield) ventures. Corporates and individuals are stocking up dollars to beat the depreciation of the Kenyan shilling that has dropped 28.4 percent over the last two years after the country’s debt became unstainable draining dollar reserves to make payments. The…
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