Kenyan central bank official reserves rise again

NAIROBI, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Kenya's central bank said its official usable foreign exchange reserves stood at $3.383 billion on Friday, up for the eighth week in a row.

Here are highlights from the bank's latest weekly bulletin:

* Official usable foreign exchange reserves stood at $3.383 billion, or 3.76 months worth of imports, on Nov. 27 compared with $3.356 billion last week and $2.720 billion a year earlier.

* Reserves have been rising every month since May. The central bank is required to hold four months of import cover and has been steadily buying dollars to replenish reserves.

* Government gross domestic debt fell to 556.9 billion Kenya shillings ($7.5 billion) as of Nov. 20 from 557.2 billion shillings as of Nov. 13. In June 2009 it stood at 518.3 billion shillings.

* The bank stayed out of the money market during the week.

* The yield on the 182-day Treasury bill declined to 7.943 percent from 8.061 percent at the last auction two weeks ago amid heavy demand.

* The central bank cut is benchmark lending rate to 7 percent on Tuesday from 7.75 percent.

* The average interbank rate declined by 45 basis points in the week ending Nov. 26 to 2.76 percent from 3.21 percent the previous week. (Reporting by David Clarke, editing by Mike Peacock) ($1=74.75 Kenyan Shilling) ((Email: nairobi.newsroom@reuters.com; Tel: +254 20 222 4717))