Roundup: Sudanese gov't makes efforts to control rising prices of basic commodities

KHARTOUM, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- As prices of basic commodities continue to rise in Sudan, the Sudanese government is making efforts to control the markets and ease the suffering of its citizens.

The implementation of the country's 2018 budget and removal of government subsidies for basic commodities caused an unprecedented price hike in the African country.

The Sudanese capital Khartoum and other cities witnessed limited demonstrations in the past days to protest against the price hike.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Monday instructed the concerned authorities to break up monopoly of commodities, control the prices, and monitor the markets on daily basis to ensure that the citizens can easily get basic goods.

Al-Bashir made the instruction when he chaired at the Presidential Palace the 5th meeting for reviewing the procedures for controlling the exchange rate and addressing the economic conditions.

He further asked the ministries of trade and industry to direct the factories, namely the state-owned ones, to open direct sales stores to sell their products at factory prices to lessen the burden on the citizens.

Sudan's Finance Minister Mohamed Osman Al-Rikabi told reporters that the meeting made a number of important decisions relating to managing the country's resources, combating gold smuggling, increasing purchase of the Central Bank of Sudan of raw gold, and expanding the gold refinery to handle the rise in gold production.

These measures were designed to help reduce the deficit in trade balance, which would positively reflect on the exchange rate of the Sudanese pound which has depreciated against the dollar fastly recently.

Al-Rikabi said the meeting reviewed the means of achieving economic stability in the country.

In a bid to contain the price hike, Khartoum State authorities have launched 21 sales stores for selling basic commodities at reduced prices.

"The sales points constitute one of the measures adopted to lessen the burden resulting from the financial and monetary polices accompanying the general budget for 2018," Adil Abdul-Aziz Al-Faki, director general of the economic sector at Khartoum State's Finance Ministry, said in a statement.

He noted that the reduced prices at the sales points range between 15 to 20 percent of the market prices.

Meanwhile, Khartoum State's Council of Ministers decided to establish a police department for consumer protection to coordinate with other concerned authorities to monitor the merchants and service providers, who are required to set prices of their commodities and services according to the trade regulations and consumer protection law for 2012.

Late last December, the Sudanese parliament approved the general budget for 2018, which included devaluating the Sudanese pound against the U.S. dollar to 18 pounds from 6.9 pounds, while raising the electricity tariff for the industry, agriculture and trade sectors and liberalizing the price of wheat.

As a result, flour manufacturers raised the price of flour, forcing bakeries to double the bread price in January.

Sudan consumes about 2 million tons of wheat annually, but the country can only produce about 12 percent of it.

The budget also introduced measures to reduce government expenditure, including stopping construction of government buildings and purchasing vehicles, and ceasing all incentives and bonuses unless authorized by the Ministry of Finance.

The budget intends to achieve a growth rate of 4 percent and reduce the inflation rate to 19.5 percent.

The secession of South Sudan in 2011 has negatively affected the Sudanese economy as the country lost around 70 percent of its oil revenues.

Even the lifting of the U.S. economic sanctions on Sudan last October has failed to halt the decline of the exchange rate of the Sudanese pound, which stood at 34.4 pounds to one dollar in the black market on Monday. Enditem