Sudan pound declines due to fragile economy
The Sudanese pound has been recording unprecedented decline against foreign currencies ,with exchange price of a USA dollar amounting to 9.8 Sudanese pounds Monday on the parallel market compared to the official price of 6.6pounds .PHOTO|NMG
What you need to know:
During the past two years, the dollar’s exchange price against the Sudanese pound on the black market kept fluctuating between 8 and 9.4 pounds, but this is the first time it is close to 10 pounds.
Khartoum. The Sudanese pound has been recording unprecedented decline against foreign currencies, with exchange price of a U.S. dollar amounting to 9.8 Sudanese pounds Monday on the parallel market compared to the official price of 6.6 pounds.
During the past two years, the dollar’s exchange price against the Sudanese pound on the black market kept fluctuating between 8 and 9.4 pounds, but this is the first time it is close to 10 pounds.
A number of currency dealers on the parallel market told Xinhua that the major currency speculators control the price, expecting the dollar exchange price to surpass 10 Sudanese pounds due to scarcity in foreign currencies and the increasing demand for them in the Sudanese market. “What is happening now can be regarded as the biggest decline for the national currency against foreign currencies. This is a surprising and unexpected matter,” Al-Haj Mohamed, a currency dealer on the parallel market, told Xinhua.
“The major speculators in the exchange market are responsible for this unprecedented decline in the price of the Sudanese pound against foreign currencies. They control the market. The state has failed to implement decisions to curb up the activities of the speculators to stabilize the exchange price of the national currency,” he added.
Adil Omer, another currency dealer on the parallel market in Khartoum, for his part, expected the dollar exchange price to go beyond 10 pounds due to the scarcity and increasing demand for foreign currencies.”There is an increasing demand for the dollar combined with a great scarcity at the same time. All indicators signal an unprecedented decline in the Sudanese pound’s exchange price against other currencies, particularly the dollar,” he noted. He went on saying that “the polices of the Central Bank of Sudan regarding the opening of credits for imports from abroad pushed the importers to look for the dollar on the parallel market, which led to the rise in the dollar’s exchange price against the national currency.”(NMG)
