Sudan will take new measures to unify the exchange rates of its pound currency by next January, the central bank said on Monday, as the country grapples with a stubborn black market and a dwindling supply of dollars in the official banking system. Central Bank Governor Hazem Abdelqader did not say what the measures will be but ruled out the possibility that the country would float the currency.
The Sudanese pound has been weakening against the dollar since Washington lifted 20-year-old economic sanctions last month, encouraging traders to step up imports and putting pressure on scarce hard currency. The central bank holds the official exchange rate at 6.7 pounds to the dollar, but businesses are unable to secure their hard currency needs at this rate and are forced to resort to a parallel market. The pound hit an all-time low of 27 pounds against the dollar in the black market earlier in November, but strengthened to 23 pounds per dollar after a raft of emergency measures that included capping currency transfers and cracking down on currency traders.
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