Kenyan president Ruto has appointed Kamau Thugge, a former senior economist at the IMF, as the governor of the country’s central bank. Thugge’s immediate task will be to stabilize the Kenyan shilling, which has lost approximately 10% of its value this year. This depreciation, coupled with food prices inflated by drought and rising energy costs, has kept inflation above the bank’s target range of 2.5% to 7.5% since June 2022. Despite these challenges, the IMF predicts that Kenya will grow by 5.3% this year, a slowdown from 4.8% in 2022. Meanwhile, Kenya’s FX reserves amounted to USD 6.5 bln as of May 11, sufficient to cover 3.6 months of imports.