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Sep 27 , 2025

Birr Inches Forward on Forex Market as Policy Pulls Back

The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) entered the foreign exchange market last week with a calibrated display of resolve. On Monday, September 22, 2025, it posted a buying rate of 145.89 Br to a dollar, only a tenth of a Birr below the selling rate. As the week unfolded, the Central Bank subtly pushed...

Sep 21 , 2025

CBE Holds the Line, Private Lenders Push the Edges

The Birr (Brewed Buck) spent the past week threading its way through a narrow but choppy stretch of the foreign-exchange market, giving banks a clear view of the pressures bubbling beneath the currency's surface. Across six trading days, the weighted average rate remained at around 143.7 Br to the dollar (Green Buck), almost mirroring the National Bank of Ethiopia's (NBE) official benchmark. Stability in the headline number, however, masked wide splits at individual banks, where buying and selling quotes told a livelier tale about competition, liquidity and policy guessing games. The sta...


Sep 14 , 2025

Amhara Bank Breaks Ranks as Forex Trend Unravels

The foreign-exchange market has rarely seen a week like the one that unfolded last week. A market usually defined by small and synchronised moves fractured when Amhara Bank blasted past convention, posting a cash buying rate of 145 Br to the dollar and a selling rate of 147.9 Br, rates no lender had dared to post. Its forex managers' decision translated into a 4.5pc premium over the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) on both sides of the spread. Amhara Bank rewrote the market's top line, with a gap that was as striking as against the National Bank of Ethiopia's (NBE) own weighted...


Sep 7 , 2025

Birr Trades Quietly Through the Interlude

Forex trading opened without fuss on September 1, 2025, but signals from the top of the monetary system kept the banking industry alert. Beneath the surface of a calm foreign exchange market, treasury desks responded with quiet precision to a shift in leadership at the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) and the evolving rules of engagement. Over the six days, commercial banks clustered around a narrow price band, even as the Central Bank compressed its own margin to near zero. On September 2, it quoted the same rate for buying and selling dollars (around 142.15 Br) and maintained the flat line...

Money Market Watch

Aug 30 , 2025

Forex Market Holds the Line While Central Bank Redraws It

The foreign-exchange market spent last week's trading days walking a tightrope between the Central Bank's policy drives and commercial imperatives. For most private banks, including Awash, Dashen, Nib...

Aug 23 , 2025

Brewed Buck Drips Below Surface While Gaps Emerge Behind FX Facade

The foreign-exchange board inside commercial banks told two stories last week. On the surface, the Brewed Buck slipped gently against the Green Buck, obeying the two percent corridor the Central Bank...

Aug 17 , 2025

Policy Signals, Not Competition, Steer Forex Price Discovery

The Birr's (Brewed Buck) market against the Dollar (Green Buck) advanced in neat formation over six trading sessions last week. Private lenders marched almost shoulder to shoulder, policymakers fixed...

Aug 10 , 2025

Brewed Buck Glides Lower in Stage-Managed Move as Dollar Stays Unruffled

The Birr (Brewed Buck) spent last week edging lower against the Dollar (Green Buck) in a controlled and policy-led fashion, and one moment set the tone. The National Bank of Ethiopia's (NBE) foreign-e...

Aug 3 , 2025

A Year of Conditional Gains for Monetary Policy Reforms. But Endurance Remains the Test

The experiment with a freely traded Birr, or one managed in a floating manner in practice, was a year old last week, and the numbers tell a story of both promise and fragility. On July 29, 2024, Ce...

Jul 27 , 2025

A Year After Currency Float, the Central Bank Takes the Helm

This week marks the first anniversary of a daring departure from nearly five decades of tightly managed monetary policy. Since the administration of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) opted to liberalise...

Jul 20 , 2025

Upstart Banks Pay Up for Dollars as Veterans Watch, CBE Sits Tight

It is unusual to see the BrewedBuck gain even a fraction of ground against the GreenBuck. Yet, last week, the Birr's steady slide briefly paused. On Saturday, the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) poste...

Jul 13 , 2025

The Brewed Buck on the Boil as Banks Push Dollar Higher, Central Bank Holds Back

The Birr (the Brewed Buck) continued its slow retreat in the retail forex market last week, losing ground in quiet increments as commercial banks edged their dollar quotations higher. The panel averag...

Jul 6 , 2025

Behind Gentle Slide, the Brewed Buck Faces Mounting Strain in a Restrained Market

The Birr (Brewed Buck) edged lower against the Dollar (teh Green Buck) last week, a gentle slide that belies a deeper tightening of liquidity. Last week, the average buying rate posted by commercial b...

Jun 29 , 2025

Banks Stand Still While Currency Pressures Do the Running

The foreign exchange market moved little in the six trading days last week, but the calm surface concealed a handful of ripples. Across the banking industry, the average buying rate for the Dollar set...

Jun 21 , 2025

Banks Edge Rates as Birr Slides and Pretenses Hold the Line

The foreign exchange market tiptoed through last week, exposing small cracks in the managed currency regime. Posted quotes from more than a dozen commercial banks, set beside the National Bank of Ethi...

Jun 15 , 2025

Behind Forex Stable Averages, Banks Signal a Coming Liquidity Crunch

The tightly managed currency market looked calm last week, yet beneath the surface, banks were jockeying for position in ways that unveiled deeper pressures ahead. Over the six trading days beginni...

Jun 8 , 2025

Banks Split on Dollar Bids as Birr Slips from Policy Grip

The foreign exchange market looked calm last week, yet its surface stability masked growing tensions among the commercial banks. Buying prices for the Green Buck clustered tightly around 131.95 Br, wh...

May 31 , 2025

Brewed Buck Caught Between a Peg, a Hard Place

The foreign exchange market spent the final week of May in a wary holding pattern, wrestling with liquidity strain yet stopping short of outright turbulence. A handful of commercial banks broke ranks...

May 24 , 2025

CBE Shifts Gear on Forex as Market Fractures Widen

The first move in nearly half a year by the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) to lift its foreign exchange offerings has injected fresh energy into a market that had been drifting in a narrow channel...

May 17 , 2025

Central Bank Tweaks Rates While the Birr Holds Its Breath

The foreign exchange market had a telling week, and the story was all in the margins. Last week, the Central Bank nudged its official cash-buying rate from 130.47 Br to 132.17 Br for a dollar, a small...


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