The Central Bank of Kenya has revealed that diaspora remittances inflows remained strong for the fourth month running hitting Ksh29.3 billion ($274.1 million) in August 2020. The amount was 28 per cent higher than the $214.3 million recorded in August 2019.
The remittances fell marginally by 1.05 percent on a month on month basis from the Ksh30 billion ($277 million) recorded in July 2020. The cumulative inflows for the 12 months to August 2020 totaled $2,921 million which is a 5.2 percent increase from the $2,776 million in the 12 months to August 2019.
The US, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia grew their share of the remittances while inflows from South Africa and Germany declined marginally compared to July 2020.
FX reserves
Over the course of August, the usable forex reserves decline by Ksh 52.1 billion ($487 million) from $9,336 million at July 30 to $8,849 million by 31 August 2020. As at September 24, the usable forex reserves stood at $8,627 million with CBK assuring that it remains adequate to cover 5.23 months of import cover.
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