April 6, 2014 – Somalia Financial Market: Improving security over the past year has encouraged native Somalis to return to the country, bringing foreign currency with them, said Ben Payton, senior Africa analyst at London-based risk analysis company Maplecroft.
The Somali shilling, Somalia’s official currency, has overcome such disadvantages to appreciate against the US dollar by just under 60 per cent since March last year, becoming the strongest among global 175 currencies tracked by Bloomberg. Its surge has been so pronounced that the second most robust currency over the same period – the Icelandic Krona – could only manage a measly 10.2 per cent rise.