USD price expected to rise beyond 10 Sudanese pounds

The exchange rate of the Sudanese pound against the US dollar unprecedentedly plummeted to trading at SDG9.85 on Monday, compared to 9.5 pounds on 10 August. Traders in Sudan's black markets, suffering from a shortage of foreign currency, predicted that the price of the dollar will rise beyond SDG10.

A black market trader speaking to Sudan Tribune noted that large quantities of US dollars are traded at a slightly higher rate of 9.90 pounds. The official exchange rate is one dollar against 6.1 Sudanese pounds and it rarely fluctuates.

Supply and demand remain the key factor in determining the exchange rate for traders at the black markets. Hard currency is scarce and expectations are that the highly-demanded US dollar might rise beyond 10 Sudanese pounds.

The pressing reports from the black market come days after the Sudanese government reported the receipt of a $1 billion dollar Forex deposit from Saudi Arabia over the last two months. The cash injection would probably have resulted in a cheaper US dollar. However, the terms of the agreement were not disclosed and Riyadh has yet to corroborate Khartoum’s announcement.

“The policies of Sudan's economy do not do what is needed to enhance the value of our pound.”

“The stability of the national currency's rate against the dollar at the moment is elusive,” journalist Kamal Karar, managing editor of the economic section of El Midan newspaper, told Radio Dabanga. “The policies and decisions of the current economy do not do what is needed to enhance the value of the Sudanese pound.”

He said that the high price of the dollar is caused by the collapse of the national currency, as the inevitable result of the economic policies of Khartoum, which are a “failure of the fiscal and monetary policies”.

Sudan's economy has suffered the loss of its oil resources over the past four years, on top of a biting US trade embargo since 1997.

(AFP, Sudan Tribune)