Sudan’s inflation rate slightly down in August
September 7, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s monthly inflation rate edged downwards in the month of August to 46.4% from 46.8% in July despite a 3% increase in consumer goods price index which has risen to 462.2 points compared to 448.9 in July.
According to the monthly bulletin issued by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on Sunday, the price index for food and drinks increased by 4.9% registering 494.5 points from 471.4 points in July due to the rise in prices.
Prices of basic food commodities continued to go up significantly over the last few weeks. The CBS attributed the rise in inflation rate to increase in prices of consumer goods and services.
The bulletin pointed that average annual change in prices of the food and drinks group reached 41.8% leading to a slight decrease of 0.09% in the average annual rate of the overall inflation which amounted to 46.4% in August compared to 46.8% in July.
The general price average of consumer and services goods has increased in the first eight months of 2014 to 38.1% compared to 35.3% in the corresponding months of 2013.
Increase in prices of consumer goods and services goods between August and July varied among all states. The highest price increase of 78.2 points was registered in South Darfur state while the lowest of 12.8 points was registered in West Darfur state.
Double-digit inflation has been one of the most visible features of the Sudanese economy in recent years which suffered a shock after the secession of South Sudan which contained three quarters of oil reserves.
To makes matters worse, the government phased out subsidies twice in 2012 and 2013 on petroleum and food products triggering demonstrations that were swiftly quelled.
The Sudanese pound lost more than half its value thus making imports more expensive. The East African nation imports most of its food from abroad.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a report last month that it expects inflation to “continue its downward trend thus bringing consumer price inflation down to single digits”.
“Twelve-month inflation fell to 35.7 percent at end March, from 41.9 percent at end-December 2013, mainly reflecting lower food prices,” it said.
(ST)