‘Sudan govt.’s admission of failure first of its kind’: Economist

Economic expert Dr Sidgi Kabello expressed his surprise at the First Vice-President and Prime-Minister, Bakri Hassan Saleh’s recognition of the failure of government policies in dealing with the economic situation the first of its kind since the current government has come to power.

In an interview with Radio Dabanga, Dr Kabello stressed the close link between the economic failures and the failure of the state's public policies and then stressed the difficulty of dealing with the situation under the current government.

He added that the current economic conditions can only be addressed by reducing imports and restricting them to medicines and production inputs, in addition to a radical change in the structure and nature of the state in order to achieve peace, democracy and freedoms and to reduce the expenditure on defence and security.

‘No regional enemies’

Dr Kabello accused the government of leading a war against its people and pointed out that Sudan has no regional enemies.

He also called for supporting agricultural and industrial production, balanced development and equitable distribution of power and wealth.

He accused the government of representing the interests of the private sector and parasitic capitalism, referring to its giving up of profitable institutions in favour of the private sector without being able to collect taxes.

Prime-Minister Bakri Hassan Saleh acknowledged the failure of the government's efforts to halt the steady decrease of the Pound against the Dollar or improve the balance of payments.

He revealed the fall of the country's oil production by 12 per cent, and the decrease of sugar production by three per cent in the current year compared to the same period last year, this along with the decrease in the performance of the industrial sector.

In his second speech to the Parliament, BSaleh said since his appointment as a prime minister, the economic sector dealings have not yielded tangible results, with the Dollar rising to more than SDG 20 now.

He added that mineral exports have fallen with the decrease of gold exports, while imports have risen because of the rise of the value of manufactured goods, petroleum products, wheat, machinery and equipment

Central Bank of Sudan

The Central Bank of Sudan cancelled the old publications issued upon the imposition of US sanctions twenty years ago and announced on Tuesday new monetary and banking measures to control the exchange rate and inflation and stimulate the export revenues and rationalise the import bill.

According to a circular issued by the Central Bank's policy department to all banks, dealing with all convertible currencies including the US Dollar will be available in line with the US State Department's and Treasury's decision to lift sanctions.

The circular confirmed that the cancelled publications should be replaced by the currency reserve in foreign currency with the Bank of Sudan in all convertible currencies including the US Dollar

The bank urged all banks to expand their network of correspondents, including US banks.

It called on banks to accept the execution of transactions, contracts and obligations in all convertible currencies, including the Dollar, currency of origin of the goods or service, if the currency in question is convertible, and accept customer invoices in all convertible currencies, including the US Dollar.

Last week, the Central Bank announced that Dollar bank transfers began to flow effectively to Sudan after Washington had lifted the sanctions.

As a result, banks are required to pay in foreign exchange transfers unless the beneficiary requests otherwise.