Sudanese pound drops again: 11.5 for US Dollar

The Sudanese pound has continued its decline against the foreign currencies. On Thursday, the US Dollar against the Sudanese pound in the parallel markets in the country has amounted to SDG11.4 for selling and 11.5 for buying.

According to currency market dealers in Khartoum, the dollar has begun to rise since the beginning of last week, after an stability around SDG10 for a period of time. The official exchange rate of the pound to the US Dollar at the Central Bank of Sudan has remained at 6.0771 since mid-July this year.

In October, the 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.

According to experts, the scarcity of hard currency in Sudan as a result of the US economic sanctions has significantly contributed to the rise in the black market exchange rate. Sudan has been on the US list of ‘state sponsors of terrorism’ since 1993 and was economically sanctioned three years later. The secession of South Sudan in 2011 made Sudan lose approximately two-thirds of its oil revenues to the south.

“Apart from this, the Dollar rate will never be brought down unless the production in Sudan rises again,” prominent Sudanese economist Prof Hamid Eltigani told Radio Dabanga in October. “Once a peace agreement has been reached and the wars are stopped, the people in Darfur, South Kordofan and the Blue Nile will significantly contribute to a rise in production levels.”