‘Sudanese pound set to plummet’

Economist predicts a collapse of the economy in the wake of the ongoing crisis

The price of the Sudanese pound will plummet by the end of the year, an economist said on Wednesday, adding that the country is currently undergoing an economic crisis.Dr Hamid Atijani Ali, economist and professor at the American University in Cairo, said in a seminar in Khartoum that he expected the value of the Sudanese pound to plunge down to 8-9 Sudanese pounds per US dollar. The current value of the Sudanese pound to the US dollar is 2.6 :1.

The current inflation is set to drive up the cost of certain commodities in the market, he predicted. Last week, the price of Sudanese pound to the US dollar in the black market hit 5:1.

“The measures adopted by the government to tackle the ongoing crisis has only pushed people in Khartoum and other states on to the streets in protest,” Atijani Ali said.

Hundreds of protesters gathered on the streets of Khartoum and several other states in the past few days to demand action against the current crisis.

Atijani equated the current economic crisis in Sudan to cancer: “It is difficult to treat. You can’t used sedatives, it is time for amputation,” Tijani said harshly. And by amputation he meant the uprooting of the Bashir government.

He stressed that the state was now bankrupt and had no source of income because of the low impetus given to the agricultural and industrial sector.

Sudan’s economy, which was once heavily dependent on agriculture, thrives on oil today after the discovery of oil reserves in the southern parts of the country. After the independence of South Sudan, most oil reserves in the country, however, remained with the south, leaving the economy of the North to dip.

Hamid Tijani suggested that the current spending on military, security services and constitutional institutions is unjustified in the wake of the current economic crisis.

Another expert at the symposium said that the hard currency in the Reserve Bank of Sudan was only suffice for one week of imports.