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South Sudan seeks 200 mln USD to finance budget shortfall

Xinhua, February 9, 2017 Adjust font size:

South Sudan said Thursday it would seek 200 million U.S. dollars from the international community to finance its fiscal budget 2016/17 estimated at about 400 million dollars.

Finance Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau told reporters in Juba that the cash was urgently needed to implement key reforms enshrined in the signed peace agreement to end more than three years of violent conflict in the oil-rich and yet impoverished nation.

"I need donors to come and provide even technical support to the ministry of finance for us to undertake reforms like the National Revenue Authority to support the Bank of South Sudan," he revealed.

South Sudan relies 98 percent on oil export to finance its fiscal budget, but conflict since outbreak in December 2013 led to decline in production from more than 350,000 barrels a day (bpd) to less than 130,000 bpd.

The country is currently grappling with hyper inflation, amid dwindling foreign reserves to support imports.

The South Sudanese Pound (SSP) has continued to depreciate against the U.S. dollar in the black market from 32 SSP in April 2016 to 100 SSP in February.

"Prices have increased and the cost of living is now unaffordable for the majority of the people in the country," the minister said.

He added that in a bid to boost the struggling non-oil revenue sector they have had to undertake tax exemption to spur business at the main border town of Nimule near the Ugandan border. Endit