On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 11:15:42 +0100, Hans-Georg Michna wrote:
>ese002@news9.exile.org (Eric Edwards) wrote:
>
>>On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 17:18:11 -0700, Dave Patterson wrote:
>>>Here is THE web site for checking exchange rates.
>>>http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic
>>>Looking at it today, it shows 76.48 KShillings to
>>>the $USD.
>>>And 97.26 KShillings to the Euro.
>>>
>>>Do the math. If you have to change Euros to
>>>dollars, do you lose enough in the transaction
>>>to make it seem worthwhile?
>
>>How do you answer that question without knowing the street rates in your
>>home country and in Kenya?
>
>Eric,
>
>there are essentially no street rates. Things were very
>different when the Kenya Shilling was not freely convertible,
>but today everybody goes to the bank.
By "street" rates, I don't mean the black market. I mean the rates at
which a travelers with bits of paper could actually get. This is always
different from the rate the banks use to trade among themselves. Actual
street rates do vary even without currency controls. For less traded
currencies I would expect the spread between buy and sell rates to be
greater due to lack of competition and more hassle for the exchange
bureau. The mean may actually be lower too, if the currency is less
useful locally and may have to be exported.
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