Nairobi, Sept. 15 -- Demand for foreign exchange by the government to meet debt payments and international obligations helped the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) double its income from selling hard currencies in the year ended June 2019.
CBK said in its annual report for 2019 that its net gain on sale of foreign exchange currencies jumped to Sh8.93 billion in the 12 months to June 2019 from Sh4.55 billion in a similar period in 2018.
This helped boost net trading income to Sh10 billion from Sh4.2 billion in 2018.
"Net trading income increased by Sh5.854 billion to Sh10.099 billion (2018: Sh4.245 billion) due to increased government payments during the year," CBK said in the annual report.
When the government borrows in dollars, the Central ...