Why the Sudanese economy is at bay
Audio 03:58
In 2020, inflation rose to 150% in Sudan, where prices quintupled.
Sudanese banknotes in an exchange office in Khartoum in 2018 © ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP
By: Dominique Baillard Follow
8 mins
The creditors of Sudan are meeting this Monday, May 17 in Paris to relieve the finances of this debt-crippled country.
The transitional government places a lot of hope in this international conference intended to revive its economy.
Publicity
The economic situation has continued to deteriorate since the end of the Islamist dictatorship.
Under the rule of Omar al-Bashir, the economy was already weak.
The US sanctions against this country classified as supporting terrorism put in place in 1993 cut it off from sources of funding.
The secession of South Sudan has worsened the financial situation by depriving Khartoum of revenues and oil foreign reserves.
Another increase in the price of bread at the end of 2018 will lead to riots and sweep away the Islamist dictatorship in a few weeks.
This social anger leads to a peaceful transition with the promise of restoring purchasing power and putting an end to the corruption that plagues the economy.
But this May, Sudanese have to queue again to buy bread or fuel
Inflation in 2020 rose to 150%, enough to rival that of Zimbabwe or Venezuela.
Year over year, prices have quintupled.
The pressure on prices has still not subsided: according to a World Bank study published on May 12: one in three households could not buy bread or cereals the week before the survey .
The pandemic has suddenly amplified the difficulties of everyday life.
According to the same survey, the majority of those who have lost their jobs due to Covid-19 have not yet resumed work.
The floods of the Nile caused monster floods in the fall and further exacerbated the economic distress of the inhabitants of the capital.
What is the government doing to improve the daily life of the Sudanese?
The Prime Minister is caught between two necessities, two contradictory short-term objectives.
It must relieve the population and at the same time comply with the expectations of the IMF to reopen the floodgates of international aid.
But ending the subsidies that devour nearly half of public spending, as required by the fund, contributes to the decline in purchasing power.
That of fuel has been abolished but not those benefiting drugs, bread and electricity.
To alleviate the burden on households, a universal income of $ 5 per month should be distributed to 80% of the population.
The World Bank is funding this program.
But distribution has been delayed for technical reasons as prices continue to rise.
The other titanic project concerns the reform of the foreign exchange market
By unifying the official market with the black market, the government seeks to cut short the corruption which benefits the former caciques of the regime of Omar al-Bashir, those who brought up the Sudanese pound on the parallel market or who organized the traffic in fuel. to escape subsidies.
It is also to improve transparency that a gold market has been newly created.
To facilitate the financing of the economy, the Prime Minister ended the monopolies of Islamic banks.
But to enhance the wealth of the country, the precious metal, oil, sesame, gum arabic and of course the fertile lands of the Nile Valley, the government hopes today to obtain renewed access to financing, and why not a clearance of its external debt.
In short
►
In the United States, the telecoms giant AT&T plans to merge its media subsidiary with Discovery.
The operation could be announced during the day.
If it sees the light of day, this new television and film giant estimated at $ 150 billion will be a serious competitor to the Netflix and Disney + platforms.
Discovery controls two chains in the world and AT&T is the world's largest telecom company by revenue.
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Sudan
Economy
United States
Telecom