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Central Bank Meets 70pc of Dollar Demand, Birr Claws Back Ground

Aug 21 , 2026

The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) sold half a billion dollars at a weighted average rate of 160.21 Br to the dollar in a special foreign exchange auction held on August 20, 2026, one that pulled the Birr back from the 161.80 Br it fetched a week ago.

The 1.59 Br move amounts to an appreciation of 0.98pc. It was won not by cooling demand but by a far heavier intervention.

Banks submitted bids worth 710.14 million dollars, up 51pc from the 470.17 million dollars tendered on August 12. The Central Bank covered about 70pc of that demand, against 27pc in the previous round, when only nine of the 28 participating banks secured an allocation.

Unmet bids still totalled 210.14 million dollars.

That residue is the measure of the pressure the auction did not resolve. A sale large enough to lift the Birr by less than a percentage point left almost a third of the order book unfilled.

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