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Aug 22 , 2026

Forex Scarcity Eases, But the Birr Still Brews from the Centre

The most revealing number in the foreign-exchange market last week was not 160.21 Br, the rate at which the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) sold dollars on Thursday. It was 710.14 million dollars, the amount commercial banks tried to buy. The Central Bank allotted the full 500 million dollars off...

Aug 16 , 2026

Forex Market Quietly Crossed the 160 Br Line

The Birr, the "Brewed Buck," spent another week performing an increasingly familiar trick. It looked placid in the aggregate while the foreign exchange market beneath it changed shape. The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has held no foreign-exchange sale auction for several weeks, holding back what had become an important mechanism for injecting dollars and testing banks' willingness to pay for them. Yet the Birr did not retreat sharply. It weakened by fractions, even as the Central Bank signalled further auctions in August and September, worth a combined half-billion dollars. The absenc...


Aug 9 , 2026

Brewed Buck Holds Its Nerve, or Its Breath

The Birr (the Brewed Buck) has held an improbable calm last week. Even though the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) ran no foreign-exchange auction for weeks, the official market moved only fractionally in the days to Saturday, August 8, 2026. However, the stability is striking, yet there is no proof that supply and demand are in balance. Across the commercial banks, and leaving aside the Central Bank's non-commercial indicative quotation, the average dollar-buying rate increased from 160.29 Br on August 3 to 160.46 Br two days later. That was a gain of 0.17 Br, 0.11pc. The average selling...


Aug 1 , 2026

Calm on the Boards, Three Prices Beneath the Forex Market

The Brewed Buck spent the last week of July doing something foreign-exchange markets rarely get credit for. Almost nothing. Beneath that calm, the banks split into clear camps. Some bid hard for dollars. Some tracked the National Bank of Ethiopia's (NBE) reference rate. A few left their boards untouched. Leaving aside the Central Bank, whose indicative rate is not a retail price, the plain average buying rate edged up from 160.0758 Br a dollar on July 27 to 160.2767 Br on August 1. Selling moved from 163.2774 Br to 163.4822 Br. The Birr weakened by about 0.13pc over the week, about 0.20...

Money Market Watch

Jul 25 , 2026

Banks Push the Birr Past 160 as the Central Bank Sits Out

Commercial banks pushed the Birr (the Brewed Buck) to a fresh low against the dollar last week. The industry's average buying rate crossed 160 Br for the first time, and the Central Bank, which is mea...

Jul 19 , 2026

The Birr Buck Slips, But Only a Few Banks Move It

The Brewed Buck slipped against the Green Buck last week, but the drift was too shallow and too ragged to call a repricing of the official foreign-exchange market. With the National Bank of Ethiopi...

Jul 12 , 2026

Abay Bank's Rate Jump Masks a Fragmented Forex Market

The Birr (the Brewed Buck) weakened slightly against the dollar in the six days to July 11, 2026, as the Central Bank stayed out of foreign-exchange auctions for a second week. However, beneath the...

Jul 4 , 2026

A Calm Rates Quote Hides a Split Forex Market

The Brewed Buck spent last week's foreign-exchange market calmer than the underlying conditions suggested. There was no auction by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) last week, yet the market did not...

Jun 27 , 2026

A Forex Auction Softens Pressure Without Moving the Boards

The Birr, the Brewed Buck, did not break in the forex market last week. It sagged across bank boards, revealing pressure rather than panic and leaving the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) with a hard m...

Jun 21 , 2026

Forex Auction Sends One Signal, Banks Send Another

The Birr (Brewed Buck) refused to fall into line last week, as the cash market for dollars resisted the convergence the Central Bank had tried to engineer. Its latest foreign-exchange auction, held...

Jun 14 , 2026

Banks Hold Dollar Rates Steady After Central Bank Cancels Auction

The foreign exchange market opened the week with a contradiction. The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) withdrew from a forex auction after floating 100 million dollars, a decision that would normally h...

Jun 7 , 2026

A Small Slide in the Birr Reveals a Bigger Split Over Dollars

The foreign-exchange market spent the first week of June moving, but not breaking. After weeks without a Central Bank forex auction, the Birr (the Brewed Buck) weakened modestly across commercial-bank...

May 31 , 2026

The Birr Looks Calm, But Banks Fight Over Dollars

The Birr (Brewed Buck) ended May's final week quietly. It barely shifted against the dollar last week. Yet daily cash-rate told a more unsettled story about banks no longer speaking with one voice. ...

May 23 , 2026

Forex Auction Uncovers a Market Under Pressure

Last week, the Birr - Brewed Buck - crossed a line the foreign-exchange market had long treated as a warning, not a price. Commercial banks' cash rates reorganised around a reference point of 160 Br t...

May 17 , 2026

Brewed Buck Looks Steady, But Banks Signal Dollar Stress

The Birr's (Brewed Buck) official cash market looked calm through Saturday, May 16, 2026. But the calm was administrative, not market-driven. With the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) absent from au...

May 9 , 2026

Banks Nudge the Birr, But Dare Not Let It Move

The foreign-exchange board's last week offered a deceptively quiet picture of the market. The implied depreciation was 0.05pc in six days, an unmistakably slow crawl. The calm is striking because t...

May 3 , 2026

A Quiet Forex Market Reveals the Limits of Monetary Reform

The Birr's (Brewed Buck) market passed last week quietly. Beneath it, the week exposed a currency board moving less by price discovery than by administrative habit. With no foreign exchange auction...

Apr 26 , 2026

Brewed Buck Stays Calm, But Not Idle. Stability Mirrors Discipline, Not Necessarily Liquidity

The Birr (Brewed Buck) spent the six days to April 25 doing what often passes for calm in the official foreign exchange market. It barely moved. More than a month after the National Bank of Ethiopia ...

Apr 19 , 2026

In the Forex Market, Stability Masks a Lack of Competition

Last week, the Brewed Buck neither strengthened nor weakened in any meaningful sense. It inched along a carefully managed path, its value against the dollar shaped as much by policy design as by marke...

Apr 5 , 2026

Forex Market Looks Stable But Tightly Managed

The striking feature of the official foreign-exchange market last week was not movement, but restraint. The notable non-news development of recent weeks was that lull. Governor Eyob Tekalegn (PhD) ref...


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