National Bank of Ethiopia Offers $500 Million FX Auction as Demand Nears 3.8 Times Supply
Updated
Updated · birrmetrics.com · Aug 19
National Bank of Ethiopia Offers $500 Million FX Auction as Demand Nears 3.8 Times Supply
1 articles · Updated · birrmetrics.com · Aug 19
Summary
$500 million will be sold in a special foreign-exchange auction on Thursday, matching the entire first-quarter FX amount the National Bank of Ethiopia had originally planned to release across four regular sales.
The move follows an August 12 auction that offered $125 million against $470.17 million in bids from 28 banks, with only nine banks receiving allocations at a weighted average rate of 161.7994 birr per dollar.
NBE said the special sale is for monetary-policy purposes, but has not clarified whether it replaces the remaining August 26, September 9 and September 23 regular auctions or comes on top of them.
Demand has repeatedly outstripped supply since the auction program began in August 2024; across 25 auctions, only one previous sale left part of the central bank's offer unallocated.
The auction rate has also been rising, climbing from 157 birr per dollar on June 24 to 161.7994 on August 12, making Thursday's sale a fresh test of how much unmet FX demand the banking system can absorb.