Roundup: Sudan expects rise in economy amid closer ties with Gulf States

The exchange price of the Sudanese pound is registering a sudden rise against foreign currencies amid expectations that the country's economy is expected to flourish, local media said Friday.

For three successive days, the value of the Sudanese currency in the local "parallel market," has kept on rising against other currencies, particularly the U.S dollar.

Sudan's Finance Minister Badr-Eddin Mahmoud announced arrangements that would soon overthrow the dollar in the parallel market without disclosing the nature of those arrangements.

"The coming period would witness a clear improvement in the economic cooperation ties between Sudan and its Arab surrounding countries which will have a positive outcome on the macroeconomic and not just the exchange rate," local Sudanese media quoted Mahmoud as saying.

He expected the exchange rate of the Sudanese pound to further increase against the dollar in the coming period which would bridge the gap between the official exchange rate and that of the parallel one, noting that Sudan's participation in the gulf alliance would achieve remarkable economic benefits for the country.

Sudan is taking part in the Saudi-led Arab alliance against the Houthi group in Yemen in the operation dubbed "Decisive Storm."

Earlier media reports said that Saudi Arabia had deposited a trust worth of 4 billion U.S dollars in the Central Bank of Sudan which resulted in a noticeable decrease in the prices of foreign currencies before the Sudanese pound, particularly the dollar.

Economic experts, in the meantime, expected the Sudanese pound to continue flourishing against foreign currencies in the coming period.

To this end, Abdul-Na'm Nour-Eddin, a Sudanese economic expert and former chairman of Sudan's Exchanges Union, was reported by official SUNA news agency as saying that a number of foreign currency dealers started to offer their stock of foreign currencies in fear of continuation of the drop in exchange prices.

He urged the government to work, through tis mechanisms, to attract the savings of the expatriates and encourage their families to spend the savings instead of storing them.

Meanwhile, and as the value of the Sudanese pound against foreign currencies is rising, the country's inflation rate has been dropping for months where in last February it dropped to 23 percent compared to 24 percent in January, according to Sudan's Central Bureau of Statistics.

"The government needs to adopt measures to bridge the gap between the official and parallel exchange rate of the Sudanese pound against foreign currencies," Abdul-Khaliq Mahjoub, a Sudanese economic expert, told Xinhua on Friday.

"After the rise in the value of the Sudanese pound against other currencies, namely the dollar, the central bank's decision to decrease the exchange rate of the pound should be revised. The value of the pound must be increased based on the current developments," he said.

The cessation of South Sudan in 2011 has greatly affected the Sudanese economy where the country lost around 70 percent of its oil revenues which created a big gap in the foreign exchange market and the exchange rate.

The separation has also affected the revenues of the country's general budget which dropped to around 50 percent, causing a huge gap in the country's budget and a great rise in budget deficit.

In September 2013 the Sudanese government adopted a package of economic measures to revive the economy including an increase in the oil prices, which then prompted wide protests across the country. Endit