![Speaker of the Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly Jemma Nunu Kumba speaks during swearing-in ceremony in Juba on August 2, 2021 [Photo by Solomon/Sudans Post]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/DSC_9411-1.jpg?ssl=1)
Local traders blame the high exchange rate of the U.S dollar against South Sudanese Pounds for a hike in prices of fuel and basic commodities in the country.
The local currency has been falling drastically against the Dollars, shooting up the roof for the cost of living for ordinary citizens.
According to the latest exchange rates of the central bank, $1 is sold at 638 South Sudanese Pound as of the 1st of August.
The high exchange rate has also pumped up prices of fuel with a little petrol jumping from SSP 450 to between SSP 700-100.
Economists cite the spillover effect of the Ukraine – Russian war; others equated the situation to the ongoing sub-national conflict.
Despite the attempts by the Central Bank to inject more hard currency into the market by auctioning U.S dollars through commercial banks and forex bureaus, the exchange rate against the dollar remains high.
Speaker of Transitional National Legislative Assembly, Hon. Jemma Nunu Kumba, blames the increase in the price hike on the exchange rate of the dollar against the pounds.
“First all, the rate of the dollar has increased, and for those who know that economy, you know what it means, when the rate of dollar increases, everything else is also affected,” Nunu said during a session on Monday in Juba.
“There is a fuel crisis all over, although we are fuel producing country, we don’t refine, we sell the crude oil and we use the crude to buy refined fuel at a high price like anybody else.”
Mary Puru Michael, a lawmaker representing Kajo-Keji County in Central Equatoria State said that the continued rise of food and fuel prices in the country is worrying.
“The prices in the market are really alarming and what I have seen is that these prices are so high because the fuel prices have become so high,” Mary said.
She said the daily increase in prices of commodities has negatively impacted poor people, leaving a majority of them unable to afford food for their families.
“So we don’t know what is really happening because we are oil producing country and the prices of fuel are really alarming,” she said.
“At least there should be stable prices of commodities in the market, even if there is an increase; it should be really being maximum but minimum.”
South Sudan depends significantly on essential commodities imported from neighboring Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda.
