Sudanese Pound: Sudan to circulate new currency

KHARTOUM: Sudan will begin circulating a new currency this month, said its central bank on Saturday. This comes after South Sudan said it planned to create a currency of its own.  South Sudan declared independence on July 9, under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war. Sudanese Central Bank Governor Mohammad Kheir al-Zubeir said that the new currency will go into circulation before the end of this month.  The Sudanese pound has been falling on the black market in Khartoum for weeks as economists say foreign currency inflows needed for imports will decline alongside falling oil revenues.  The south took about 75 percent of Sudan’s 500,000 barrel-a-day oil reserves with it when it left.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2011.