our projection for overall growth in 2023," Njoroge told a news conference.
Last week, President William Ruto said the government was
working with the central bank to revive the interbank foreign
exchange market, which has been inactive in recent years because
of what traders say was aggressive policing by the central bank.
The central bank has repeatedly denied undue interference in
the market, saying the regulator was performing its role of
enforcing discipline. It says it has no preferred rate for the
shilling and only intervenes to reduce volatility.
The lack of a vibrant interbank foreign exchange market has
been blamed in part for an acute shortage of hard currency that
has forced the government to seek longer credit periods for
essential imports such as petrol.
Njoroge said the return of interbank trade over the past two
weeks had smoothed out volatility in the shilling exchange rate.
"So, yes, the journey has started and already you can see a
positive outcome in terms of the ... reactivation of the
interbank market," he said.
The bank said its foreign exchange reserves, which stand at
$6.4 billion, equivalent to 3.6 months of import cover, were
expect to rise by $1.4 billion by the end of April, with further
assistance from the IMF by the end of June, Njoroge said.
On Wednesday, the central bank raised its benchmark lending
rate to 9.50% from 8.75% previously and said there
was room for further tightening of monetary policy in
anticipation of higher inflation.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga has used inflation as a
reason for calling bi-weekly anti-government protests.
The Kenyan economy grew by an estimated 5.6% in 2022.
(Reporting by Hereward Holland; Writing by George Obulutsa;
Editing by Sharon Singleton and Edmund Blair)
