(Bloomberg) -- Angola’s kwanza recovered from a 25-year low against the dollar after the oil-producing nation’s central bank resumed foreign currency sales to commercial lenders.
The Banco Nacional de Angola said in a statement on Thursday it had sold $71 million at a price of 935 kwanza to the dollar to local banks. It will sell another $179 million during the week, it said.
The move bolstered the kwanza to 923 against the dollar from 961 on Oct. 1, the lowest level since 1999. It also helped Africa’s fifth worst performing currency trim its losses to about 10% against the dollar this year.
A stronger kwanza may help temper annual inflation that’s at 30.5% in the net importer. The dollar sales are meant to “cover foreign exchange operations intended for the import of food and medicines,” said the central bank.
The last time it intervened was in August, when it sold $99.1 million to lenders, according to central bank data. A central bank official wasn’t immediately available to comment on the sale.
South Sudan, Mauritius, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe have also injected dollars into their foreign exchange markets to prop up their currencies and dampen imported inflation.
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