(Bloomberg) -- Angola’s central bank resumed the sale of foreign currency to lenders, a move that could prevent the kwanza from weakening further as inflationary pressures mount in the southwest African nation.

A total of 17 banks bought $200 million of foreign currency available at an auction on Monday at an average price of 843.53 kwanza to the dollar, the Banco Nacional de Angola said in a statement on its website. 

The last time the central bank intervened in the foreign-exchange market was in August, when it sold $100 million to lenders, according to central bank data. A central bank official was not immediately available to comment on the sale.

Pro-Active Intervention

“The Banco Nacional de Angola appears to be doing a pro-active intervention this time round to avoid the rout the kwanza saw last May,” said Simon Quijano-Evans, a London-based economist at Gemcorp Capital. “It is essentially providing the seasonally necessary dollar liquidity before rather than after the market needs it, which is a positive.”

The kwanza has lost nearly 40% of its value against the dollar over the past 12 months following a government decision last May to stop defending it. 

Despite the decision, the currency has held up surprisingly well to the greenback this year, even as a shortage of dollars and rising import prices stoke inflation.

Some restrictions imposed by the central bank on foreign currency trading may have enabled the kwanza to avoid weakening further last year, Bloomberg News reported on Oct. 26, citing people familiar with the matter. 

Angola’s annual inflation rate climbed to a two-year high of 26% in March.

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