RTRS:Uganda shilling slips vs dollar, seen recovering
KAMPALA (Reuters) - The Ugandan shilling slipped against the dollar on Wednesday due to post-holiday demand for dollars from banks but traders anticipated a recovery on the back of the central bank's tight policy stance.
At 0815 GMT, commercial banks in Kampala posted the shilling at 2,450/2,460, weaker than Tuesday's close of 2,440/2,450.
"Liquidity conditions are still tight, so while the shilling has depreciated because of a surge in interbank demand, it's still biased toward strengthening," said Lucas Ochieng, Treasury manager at Orient Bank.
On Tuesday, Bank of Uganda left its key lending rate unchanged at 23 percent for this month.
It said that although price pressures in east Africa's third largest economy had peaked, there was still a significant challenge to curb inflation to acceptable levels on a sustainable basis.
Traders said the shilling was likely to take its cue from results of a three-year, 95 billion shillingsTreasury bond auction due later on Wednesday.
"It's the auction results that will give the market real direction depending on the level of participation by offshore players," Ochieng said.
An aggressive round of policy tightening, since August last year, has helped the shilling to comfortably rise off its all-time record low of 2,901 hit on Sep. 23.
After launching the benchmark Central Bank Rate at 13 percent in July last year, the bank raised it for four consecutive months as it sought to tame rampamt inflation and support the currency.
"BoU's objective in leaving the rate at this high level (23 percent) is to maintain a lid on consumer demand which will inevitably support the shilling," said a trader from a leading commercial bank.