Kenyan shilling gains ground against the dollar

Kenya's shilling USDKES strengthened against the dollar on Wednesday, LSEG data showed.

At 1000 GMT, the shilling was quoted at 160.50/161.50 per U.S. dollar, compared with Tuesday's closing level of 161.00/162.00.

Meanwhile, inflation in the East African nation rose to 6.9% year on year in January from 6.6% a month before due to faster price increases of food, electricity and transport, statistics office said.

While inflation is still within the government's preferred target range of 2.5% to 7.5%, persisting local currency weakness remains the biggest risk to a sustained slowdown in inflation, said analysts at ETM Analytics.