• TERMS OF USE
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • ETHICS COMMITTEE
  • SUBMITTING AN ARTICLE
Wednesday, February 8, 2023
Sudans Post
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • SOUTH SUDAN
    • SUDAN
    • REGION
  • EDUCATION
  • CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
  • PRESS RELEASES
  • OPINIONS & ANALYSIS
  • ABOUT US
  • CONTACT US
  • عربي
No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • SOUTH SUDAN
    • SUDAN
    • REGION
  • EDUCATION
  • CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
  • PRESS RELEASES
  • OPINIONS & ANALYSIS
  • ABOUT US
  • CONTACT US
  • عربي
No Result
View All Result
Sudans Post
No Result
View All Result

South Sudan ran out of foreign currency  

2 years ago
Reading Time: 5 mins read

South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit in 2020 [Photo by Reuters]
South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit in 2020 [Photo by Reuters]
JUBA – South Sudan government has announced that it has run out of foreign exchange reserve and that its central bank only has $5000 dollars at its disposal.

Daniel Kech Pouch, the second deputy of Central Bank said the bank only has $5000 in foreign reserves.

“It is difficult for us at the moment to stop this rapidly increasing exchange rate, because we do not have resources, we do not have reserves,” Daniel Kech Pouch told a news conference.

South Sudan, battered by years of conflict and corruption, has run out of foreign exchange reserves and cannot stop the pound’s depreciation, a senior central bank official in the oil-producing nation said on Wednesday.

South Sudan gets almost all of its revenue from crude oil, but current output, at about 180,000 barrels per day (bpd), has plummeted from a peak of 250,000 bpd before the outbreak of conflict in 2013, according to official figures.

South Sudan has three exchange rates – one from the central bank, from commercial banks, and from the unofficial market. Pouch said the rate for the pound from the central bank is 165 a dollar, from commercial banks about 190, and 400 from the parallel market.

In addition to lower oil production, corruption is also driving the crisis, said Brian Adeba, the deputy director of policy at United States-based watchdog The Sentry, which has released several reports documenting high-level corruption. The government has denied the findings.

“For a long time, egregious corruption and the deliberate destruction of institutional mechanisms for checks and balances have resulted in officials using the central bank as their personal ATM, so this [running out of foreign exchange] is not surprising,” Adeba told the Reuters news agency.

South Sudan ended five years of civil war in 2018 but disagreements between President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar, who led the main rebel group, have stalled the conclusion of the peace process.

The war – marked by ethnic cleansing, extreme sexual violence and pockets of famine – displaced around a third of the population from their homes. The conflict killed an estimated 400,000 people and created Africa’s biggest refugee crisis since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

“The Bank of South Sudan and ministry of finance have created serious economic blunder by taking out the SSP reserve from the treasury and giving it to businessman … This is dangerous for the peace agreement because it will create fear,” said James Okuk, researcher at the Juba-based Center for Strategic and Policy Studies.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Related Posts

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Deng Dau Deng speaks during the opening one-day Tukul talk conference held in Juba on Tuesday, Feb. 7th, 2023 [Photo by Sudans Post]

South Sudan accuses Kenya, Uganda of illegally taking over its territories

Troika statement. [Photo courtesy]

Western powers urge gov’t to address ‘underlying causes’ of Kajo-keji violence

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sudans Post

Sudans Post is an independent, young, and grass roots news media organization aimed at providing readers with an alternate depiction of events that occur on Sudan, South Sudan and East Africa, and to establish an engaging social platform for readers to discover and discuss the various issues that impact the two countries and the region.

SUDANS POST

  • ABOUT US
  • CONTACT US
  • ETHICS COMMITTEE
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • SUBMITTING AN ARTICLE
  • TERMS OF USE

RECENT NEWS

  • South Sudan accuses Kenya, Uganda of illegally taking over its territories
  • Western powers urge gov’t to address ‘underlying causes’ of Kajo-keji violence

SUBSCRIBE TO SUDANS POST

Get the news delivered right into your inbox and subscribe!

Loading
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • TERMS OF USE
  • ETHICS COMMITTEE
  • SUBMITTING AN ARTICLE

Copyright © 2019–2021 Sudans Post - All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • SOUTH SUDAN
    • SUDAN
    • REGION
  • EDUCATION
  • CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
  • PRESS RELEASES
  • OPINIONS & ANALYSIS
  • ABOUT US
  • CONTACT US
  • عربي

Copyright © 2019–2021 Sudans Post - All rights reserved.