The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has revealed the results of its Special Foreign Exchange Auction held on August 7, 2024. This event, which involved 27 participating banks, concluded with a weighted average exchange rate of Birr 107.9 per US Dollar.
These exchange rates will be incorporated into the Indicative Daily Exchange Rate to be released on August 8, 2024, as per NBE's announcement.
NBE Governor Mamo Mihretu expressed satisfaction with the outcomes, stating, "We are pleased to see a substantial narrowing of the gap between bank exchange rates and parallel market rates over the past week, as well as meaningful progress towards exchange rate stability." This development aligns with the ongoing macroeconomic reforms designed to stabilize the exchange rate and shift foreign exchange (FX) transaction activity to the banking system.
Governor Mamo highlighted the positive trend in FX transaction volumes, noting, "We are also pleased to see a growing number of banks making foreign exchange available to their customers by approving past import requests and accepting new import requests. We anticipate and indeed expect more banks will follow this trend over the coming weeks and that they will do so with increasingly larger FX volumes."
This auction and the subsequent progress underscore the NBE's commitment to fostering a stable and efficient foreign exchange market, contributing to broader economic stability and growth.