Awash Bank eases 1.6% to 2,952 birr as rest of ESX board holds flat
Awash Bank eased 1.59% to 2,952 birr on 20 May while Wegagen, Gadaa and the money market held flat. The official birr sat at 157.43/USD, with the parallel rate running 16.2% wider.
FX
Official USD/ETB held at 157.43 buy/sell (data as of 2026-05-19, today's session not yet in); the sheet logs no daily change for that session. The parallel rate stood at 182.88, leaving the parallel market 16.2% above the official sell rate. Other pairs on 19 May: EUR/ETB 185.12, GBP/ETB 213.76, CNY/ETB 23.32, AED/ETB 43.07, JPY/ETB 1.0017 — none carried a logged daily change.
Macro
Headline inflation reached 11.7% YoY (up 2.3pp, as of 12 May), with food inflation at 13.5% and non-food inflation at 9.1%.
ESX
Awash Bank (AWAB) was the only mover in the 20 May session, easing 1.59% to 2,952 birr. Wegagen Bank (1,191), Gadaa Bank (1,160) and the Interbank Money Market index (18) all closed unchanged, and no ticker posted a gain. The money-market index had repriced from 12 to 18 on 19 May, a 50% step that has since held.
Watch
- Banks bid USD1bn against USD500m on offer at the latest NBE forex auction, clearing at 159.98 birr/USD (Reporter).
- Finance Minister Ahmed Shide called for a rethink of the global financial architecture in London (ENA).
- The EU moved to lift Schengen visa restrictions on Ethiopians (Addis Fortune).
- IGAD will deploy observers for the 1 June general election; 50.5m voters registered.
- ESX admitted First Addis and Siinqee investment banks as trading members (11 May) and concluded its second regional roadshow (12 May).