South Sudan: Are salary increases keeping pace with inflation?

By Steve Paterno

For the first time, South Sudan public officials are receiving their increased salaries. The salary is increased by up to 400%, which sounds good. But to understand this better is to value the salary increase against the market prices. Here is how I look at this from my personal experience. This perspective is purely from a layman as a consumer, for I am not claiming expertise in any field other than my personal experience.

I came to Juba from the USA for the first time since I passed through Juba from Khartoum en route to the bushes of South Sudan in late 1984. I was born in Juba, and by the time I briefly passed through it, I knew nothing of it as young as I was. Anyway, in my third time descending into Juba, I arrived on November 3^rd, 2017, at around 3:00 PM.

On my arrival at the airport, the heat was intense, and the first thing I needed was cold water and soda. I gave my helpers $20 to get me cold water and soda. In addition, I gave them $20 each. In return, they thanked me and told me the amount was more than their monthly salaries. (By the way, my helpers were two, so: $20 for water and soda+$40 for them=$60).

When I already settled in Juba town, I found out that a small water bottle (600 millilitres), costs 50 South Sudanese pounds (SSP), and 1.5 litre is 80SSP. The dollar exchange rate was at $1:180SSP. I left Juba in mid-December for rural areas, where money does not make sense compared to town settings.

I returned to Juba in mid-January 2018. I found some minor changes: the small water bottle was fetching at 60SSP, and the big one was 120SSP. The dollar rate shot at $1:240SSP. Things continued to fluctuate from then on, but more steadily upward trajectory. The reason I am using the water bottle here as an example is because I consume them daily, and the consistency makes a lot of reasonable sense to me, and I hope to some as well. In addition, prices of different items in the market fluctuate irregularly, whereby I never purchase them regularly like water bottles.

Going forward, I developed a large family along the way, which is based in Juba, which added more basic daily items to my list (besides just water bottle). (By the way, in South Sudan, family size is a relative term). What I call a large family is bigger to others and smaller than others.

Below are my basic daily family needs, again based on my experience, relative to others. The illustration here needs a table as this:

This table above is a breakdown requiring a brief analysis because if I have to explain all, it will amount to a book, which will not fit this space. Let me highlight some significant points as follows:

The drinking water bottles seem to be doing well, but the 20L water container seems to have steeply jumped up without any reason. With the water tanker per barrel, I struck a deal with one driver who kept filling my water at a specific fixed price, but sometimes, I gave him more when the gas price goes up. (By the way, I intentionally excluded gas consumptions on the above table for both vehicle and cooking, for we can do without those as average citizens). I also hear the water tankers arbitrarily impose prices as they wish around the town, and it makes it difficult to factor the actual monetary value of water we are getting from those tankers on average.

For almost three years now, my family has given up on imported flour for health reasons and resorted to other grains as the main and basic stable food. The goat and sheep sole in the Juba market were following the dollar rate, or so I thought. But they jumped up uncontrollably, which makes no sense to me. Rice seems to be keeping up steadily along the inflation rate, of course, going up. Sugar seems to be okay as well, as it grows steadily along the inflation path. Charcoal, a locally made product, spiked up by more than double in price in a short period.

The cement’s price was equated to a dollar rate until it jumped up during the Corona shutdown by more than doubling the price. School fees also worry me, as they have grown exponentially after the COVID-19 shutdown. Anyway, what do I know, but I hear the problem is the dollar. I leave it at that with this conclusion:

One hopes we, individual South Sudanese consumers, will not reach the point where we own a lot of valueless money and go to the market with a wheelbarrow full of money and get a small bag of groceries, which does not fit to wheel it back home on our wheelbarrow.