Among the delayed loans include a Ksh.131 billion ($1.1 billion) syndicated loan expected in June which was to replace a planned Eurobond issue of a similar ticket size.
“We did not get the $1.1 billion in US dollars that the National Treasury had planned to borrow in the last fiscal year, and that has been something exogenous to us as we expected it as part of our reserves,” noted CBK Governor Patrick Njoroge.
The country’s foreign exchange reserves breached the first limit of an equivalent 4.5 months of Kenya’s import cover a week ago but have remained above CBK’s prescribed cover of four months.
The CBK expects disbursement from the syndicated loan along with other foreign inflows to replenish the reserves putting them back above 4.5 months target for the East African Community (EAC) convergence criteria.
“There is no trigger for falling below the 4.5 months import cover. Generally, our target has been to have four months of import cover. We would be more concerned if we went below this threshold,” added Dr. Njoroge.
Last week, CBK’s official reserves marked an erosion hold to grow to Ksh.921.1 billion ($7.74 billion) from Ksh.919 billion ($7.727 billion) previously.
Foreign reserves refer to foreign assets held at the Central Bank as cushion from external shocks on the domestic economy and include a stockpile of foreign currencies, gold or special drawing rights (SDRs).
In Kenya, the CBK deploys the reserves to make external payments such as government debt.
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