Sharjah24 – AFP: Sudan said Sunday it was ditching its fixed exchange rate and adopting a managed float, in line with an IMF programme but at the risk of fanning already-smouldering popular discontent.
It is the latest in a series of reforms by the joint military-civilian government that has ruled Sudan.
The move aims to stem a rampant black market that has seen the local pound recently trade at around 400 to the dollar, while the official rate was fixed at 55 pounds to the greenback.
It is expected to shift the official rate toward black market levels -- sending prices higher even as citizens already grapple with an inflation rate that topped 300 percent last month.
Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim urged people to tolerate the impact of the policy change, saying in a press conference that it "will require a high patriotic spirit" and "cooperation".
Sudan's central bank said in a statement the transitional government had decided on "reforming and unifying the exchange rate system by applying a managed flexible exchange rate system".
Closing the yawning gap between the official and black market rates is central to a reform programme agreed last year with the International Monetary Fund.
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