Sudan approves 2018 budget to boost growth, reduce inflation

KHARTOUM, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Sudan's Council of Ministers on Tuesday approved the country's general budget for 2018, which tends to boost growth rate and reduce the inflation rate.

Omer Mohamed Saleh, spokesman of Sudan's council of ministers, said the budget tends to achieve a growth rate of 4 percent and reduce the inflation rate to 19.5 percent, noting that the budget does not include new taxes.

The budget also includes measures to reduce government expenditure, he added.

He announced that the government would continue supporting life saving medicines in addition to provision of 60,000 posts for the graduates in the coming year.

The budget revenues for 2017 amounted to 77.7 billion Sudanese pounds (11.6 billion U.S. dollars), while the expenditure registered 96.2 billion Sudanese pounds.

Additionally, the deficit in current year's budget amounted to 18.5 billion Sudanese pounds.

Sudan has announced a package of economic measures to revive the economy and contain the decline of the national currency against foreign currencies.

The secession of South Sudan in 2011 has negatively affected the Sudanese economy as the country lost around 70 percent of its oil revenues, creating a big gap in the foreign exchange market and the exchange rate. Enditem