Uganda’s shilling gained for the first time this week after the country’s central bank sold dollars to halt a slide prompted by the imposition of harsher penalties against homosexuals.
The currency of Africa’s biggest coffee exporter strengthened 0.1 percent to 2,517.90 per dollar by 5 p.m. in Kampala, the capital, paring its weekly decline to 2.7 percent, the biggest drop since March 2012.
Uganda intervened in foreign-currency markets for a third day “in line with our mandate of maintaining stability,” Philip Wabulya, executive director of operations, said by phone today. “The mandate lets us smooth out the depreciation.”
The shilling slid after President Yoweri Museveni signed a law that carries life sentences for some homosexual acts on Feb. 24, prompting a backlash against the East African nation as donors including Denmark, Norway and the World Bank suspended aid. The currency is Africa’s worst performer this week.
“Foreign development partners have said they will review their assistance to the country, hence investors have become jittery,” Julians Amboko, a research analyst at Nairobi-based StratLink - Africa Ltd., said by phone. “How long the shilling continues to receive a beating will depend on what direction the government takes.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Fred Ojambo in Kampala at fojambo@bloomberg.net; Eric Ombok in Nairobi at eombok@bloomberg.net
{UAH} DIN MAJESTÄT CARL GUSTAF FOLKE Hubertus, DU HAR EN inträdes MAIL
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