Sudan’s government unable to stop pound decline: Hamdok

January 21, 2020 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok Tuesday acknowledged the government’s inability to control the decline of the Sudanese pound due to the lack of hard currency reserves.

“The Bank of Sudan is suffering from a structural defect, while the severe shortage in foreign currency helped speculators in the parallel market,” he said in a TV interview broadcasted on Tuesday evening.

He also accused those who said that they have personal interests to benefit from this crisis.

The exchange rate of the dollar on Monday reached 102 Sudanese pounds in an unprecedented record, but Hamdok indicated that it began to fall on Tuesday and reached 95 pounds.

The Sudanese Prime Minister announced that his government economic is implementing several measures that would improve the value of the local currency, including restructuring the central bank to be under the prime minister in lieu of the Sovereign Council and the enactment of a special law to strictly control speculators.

The new civilian government is counting on the international financial support that would be generated by a donor meeting to fund a series of reforms.

However, the donor conference may be delayed to from April to early June because the host country Kuwait asked to report it at least until the end of May.

Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Badawi, who participated in the interview, said that the depreciation of the local currency caused the lack of foreign currencies in the central bank, of an investment fund and caused also a deficit of the trade balance.

He pointed out that the deficit of 142 billion pounds last year had a role in the economic difficulties facing his government.

The minister announced that up to 450 km of gold (about $ 25 million) are smuggled on daily basis from the country, adding that they would soon establish a gold exchange market in Khartoum to stop the illegal gold exportation.

(ST)