Sudan Pound reaches new low (11.6) against Dollar

The Sudanese Pound on Thursday hit its lowest value since South Sudan seceded in 2011, trading at SDG11.6 to the US Dollar on the streets, Reuters reported.

The Central Bank has kept the official exchange rate at SDG6.1 to the Dollar. “There is a dollar shortage in the market and demand is so high people will buy at any price because of how rare dollars are right now,” a trader in the parallel market told Reuters.

Another trader said the Pound is expected to fall further in the new financial year. The Sudanese parliament is set to approve a new budget next week, which projects a drop in inflation to 13 percent from 17.9 percent this year, the news agency wrote.

In October, the US Dollar rate against the Sudanese Pound exceeded SDG10.10 on the black market in in Khartoum. Currency traders attribute the increase to the scarcity of hard currency traded at the stock market.

The Central Bank of Sudan announced in in September 2010 that the lack of hard currency was becoming acute. In general, the price rises during the past years are attributed to the secession of South Sudan in July 2011, after which Sudan lost two-thirds of its oil revenues, an important source of hard currency.

(Source: Reuters)