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

Jul 19 , 2026.

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 Ethiopia (NBE) yet to hold a foreign-currency auction for weeks, most banks held their boards or moved them up, a surface calm that hid how differently each was chasing dollars.

In the auction's absence, the market ran on three prices that no longer moved together; the Central Bank's own swinging quotation, the sticky cash boards of the commercial banks, and the higher effective rate some lenders pay once top-up bonuses are counted.

Across the commercial banks, except the Central Bank, the unweighted average buying rate increased from 159.65 Br to the dollar on July 13 to 159.90 Br on Saturday, July 18, while the average selling rate jumped from 162.84 Br to 163.09 Br. Both moved about 0.16pc over the six days, a depreciation of about 25 cents in the Birr's average buying value.

The week's average was 159.79 Br to buy and 162.99 Br to sell.

The daily path was a gentle climb. The buying and selling averages went from 159.65 Br and 162.84 Br on July 13 to 159.71 Br and 162.90 Br on July 14, then 159.76 Br and 162.96 Br the next day, before the week's biggest step on July 16 to 159.85 Br and 163.05 Br, edging to 159.87 Br and 163.07 Br on Friday and closing at 159.90 Br and 163.09 Br.

No commercial bank cut its buying rate; 22 raised offers at least once, and seven held. Yet the size and spread of the moves marked this as a set of bank-specific decisions rather than a broad weakening of the Brewed Buck.

The average buying rate, less swayed by extreme quotations, increased only seven cents to 159.66 Br, far below the 25-cent industry average. Bunna and Anbesa banks, together with the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE), accounted for almost 55pc of the aggregate move. Strip them out, the rest averaged about 12 cents.

The typical bank barely stirred. The market clustered near 159 Br, with 27 of the 29 banks buying above it by Saturday but only six above 160 Br. The industry average of a 25-cent move said more about a handful of aggressive bidders than about the field as a whole.

The five large private banks - Awash, Abyssinia, Dashen, Wegagen and Zemen - set the cautious tone. Their average buy increased from 159.60 Br to 159.76 Br, a 16-cent move. Awash Bank added 25 cents to 159.33 Br, Dashen 22 to 159.26 Br, Abyssinia nearly 10 to 159.55 Br and Zemen almost 25 to 160.85 Br, while Wegagen Bank sat at 159.80 Br for a third straight week.

Only Zemen Bank closed above 160 Br, with its 164.07 Br selling rate topping the group; Wegagen Bank sold at 163 Br, and Abyssinia, Awash, and Dashen at 162.75 Br, 162.52 Br, and 162.44 Br, respectively.

Against that restraint was Oromia Bank, which held a buying rate of 162.73 Br and a selling rate of 165.99 Br all week. Its buy quotation, the industry's highest, has not moved in more than a month, making it at once the most aggressive buyer of dollars and one of the least active repricers, a standing strategic position rather than a reaction to last week's moves.

Abay Bank offered the next-highest buy at 162.57 Br and sell at 165.82 Br, lifting its offer nearly 20 cents through the week to cut Oromia Bank's lead from 37 cents on Monday to 17 on Saturday.

Bunna Bank took third after the week's sharpest single move, its buy jumping 2.08 Br on July 16 from 160.01 Br, nearly four-fifths of the whole industry's rise that day, to finish at 162.11 Br buying and 165.35 Br selling.

Anbesa Bank made a smaller step-change, lifting its buy 1.10 Br on July 15 from 159.71 Br, about two-thirds of the day's industry move. Hibret Bank also stood out, ending at 160.88 Br after a 46-cent week that included a 27-cent jump on Saturday alone.

Together, these banks form a premium-dollar class. Oromia, Abay, Bunna, Hibret, Zemen and Anbesa banks all closed above 160.80 Br, readier than the rest to pay for foreign exchange, yet split between standing high-rate holders like Oromia and active repricers like Bunna and Anbesa banks.

A second, larger class sat in a narrow 159.50 Br to 160 Br band, holding Wegagen, Amhara, Goh Betoch, Berhan, Gadaa, Tsedey, ZamZam, Hijra, Global and Abyssinia banks, which made small or no adjustments and tracked the market's centre of gravity most closely. A third group, between 159 Br and 159.50 Br, held DBE, Awash, Coop Bank, Nib, Dashen, Enat, Siinqee and Sidama banks, some drifting up but still below the average.

Only CBE and Tsehay Bank stayed below 159 Br.

CBE lifted its buy 20 cents to 158.83 Br on July 14 and then held, selling at 162.01 Br, its buy 1.07 Br under the Saturday industry average and second-to-last despite its dominance. That ranking is muddied by the top-up bonuses the CBE and some competitors pay for each dollar acquired. The effective rate a customer receives can beat the published headline, a reminder that the board price is not always the price paid.

Tsehay Bank stayed the lowest bidder all week at 158.49 Br buying and 161.66 Br selling, unmoved. By Saturday, the Central Bank's 159.99 Br was 1.5 Br above it, the tightest such gap in almost a year.

Oromia Bank's top buy and Tsehay Bank's bottom were 4.23 Br a dollar apart. A customer selling 10,000 dollars would, in principle, collect 42,387 Br more at Oromia Bank than at Tsehay Bank.

On the sell side, the gap between Oromia Bank's 165.99 Br and Tsehay's 161.66 Br was 4.32 Br. However, such comparisons need caution. A high buy rewards a seller but makes the same bank dear for a buyer, and a posted sell rate means little if no dollars are available at it.

The third price told a different story.

The Central Bank's own rate swung far harder than the commercial market, falling 26 cents on July 14, rising 1.25 Br the next day, dropping nearly 68 cents on July 16 and recovering 68 cents on July 17 before holding, to end at 159.99 Br, about one Birr (0.63pc) above its July 13 mark.

Commercial banks matched neither the timing nor the size. When the Central Bank cut, most held or raised; when it jumped, many stood pat. The gap signalled sticky boards and bank-specific dollar demand rather than daily transmission from the official quotation.

The stillness was as telling as the moves. Seven banks (Berhan, Global, Hijra, Nib, Oromia, Tsehay and Wegagen) did not adjust at all last week, a group that holds both the highest and the lowest offers in the market at once. Because it sits at both extremes, its inertia is why the market's overall range held firm even as the average crept up.

Until the Central Bank returns to the auction floor, the Brewed Buck's price will keep depending less on any single rate than on which of the three prices, and which bank's board, a customer happens to read.

PUBLISHED ON Jul 19,2026 [ VOL 27 , NO 1368]