Sudan will not stop support for basic commodities

Sudan will not stop government support for basic commodities in light of rising inflation, Prime Minister Mutaz Musa said yesterday.

He told parliament: “It is impossible now to speak about stopping [government] support due to the increasing inflation rate and the volatility of the exchange rates of the local currency.”

Sudan’s external debts, Musa added, has reached $56 billion.

Sudan’s economy has been struggling since the south of the sprawling northeast African country seceded in 2011, taking with it three-quarters of oil output and depriving Khartoum of a crucial source of foreign currency.

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Early in September, 11 months after the United States lifted 20-year-old trade sanctions, President Omar Al-Bashir dissolved his government, citing Sudan’s “state of distress and frustration”, and slashed a third of ministries to cut costs.

At over 60 per cent, Sudan’s inflation rate is among the world’s highest, while its currency buys fewer than half as many dollars on the black market – which has effectively replaced the formal banking system – as it did a year ago.