NBE Completes Second June Auction at 157 Birr
The central bank concluded its two-auction June programme on schedule, with both the clearing rate and total bids pulling back from the previous round’s highs.
The National Bank of Ethiopia concluded the second of its two scheduled June special foreign exchange auctions on Tuesday, June 24, allocating USD 100 million to participating banks at a weighted average rate of 157 birr per dollar. The auction cleared on schedule and in full, completing the USD 200 million programme that the central bank announced on May 27.
Fourteen commercial banks submitted bids totalling USD 160.50 million, leaving the auction oversubscribed by 1.60 times. Nine of the fourteen banks secured allocations. Both figures mark a shift from the previous round on June 16, when 16 banks competed for the same USD 100 million with total bids of USD 236.3 million, an oversubscription ratio of 2.36 times, and only eight banks walking away with dollars.
The clearing rate also moved. Both the marginal rate and the weighted average settled at exactly 157 birr per dollar, a one-birr decline from the June 16 auction’s 158 birr reading and the first time the auction-clearing rate has ticked back since February.
The most telling data point in today’s results, however, is the bid spread. The highest accepted bid matched the clearing rate at 157 birr, while the lowest accepted bid came in at 152 birr, a gap of five full birr between the floor and the ceiling. In the June 16 auction, the entire accepted range sat within one birr cent. A spread this wide suggests banks came to today’s auction with materially different views on where the rate should clear, which is a different kind of market signal than the tight clustering the auctions have typically produced.
Auction at a Glance
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Amount allotted | USD 100 million |
| Total bids received | USD 160.50 million (1.60x oversubscribed) |
| Marginal (cut-off) rate | 157.0000 birr/USD |
| Weighted average rate | 157.0000 birr/USD |
| Highest bid rate | 157.0000 birr/USD |
| Lowest bid rate | 152.0000 birr/USD |
| Number of participants | 14 banks |
| Successful participants | 9 banks |
Source: National Bank of Ethiopia, Foreign Exchange Auction No. 24 Results, June 24, 2026.
The NBE has not announced the schedule for its next auction. With the two June rounds now complete and the 2025/26 fiscal year ending June 30, the next round is expected to fall under a new schedule for the opening months of EFY 2018/2026-27.