Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The government said that food prices will soon come down after inking a deal with neighbouring Uganda for a constant supply of basic commodities.
This came following a meeting between President Salva Kiir and a delegation from Uganda led by Lt. Gen. James Mugira, which ensured a steady supply of basic commodities to South Sudan.
At the same time, the Central Bank and Ministry of Finance announced Friday that a decision has been made to pour dollars into the economy to help fight runaway inflation.
“We have reached a concrete solution to avail dollars into the market to address the high inflation,” Dier Tong Ngor, Minister for Finance and Planning, told President Kiir.
Dier assured the president that there are enough dollar reserves to pin down inflation.
He noted that they would inject enough dollars into the market to neutralise the high demand for hard currency and lower consumer prices, according to a statement from the Office of the President.
Johnny Ohisa Damian, the governor of the Central Bank, said the bank would fund the importation of commodities to South Sudan’s markets.
Mugira said the move would flood the markets in South Sudan with commodities that would see prices fall in a bid to strengthen bilateral relations with the country.
The government has nearly exhausted all the possibilities to improve the economy, but none seem to have yielded.
Yesterday, Morris Madut, the head of the department of economics at the University of Juba said the country must focus on building the local capacity to generate enough exports to bring in dollars.
He added that the best solution to the current economic crisis was to increase local food production so that food items would be available at a lower cost instead of importing basic commodities from neighbouring countries.
Dr Abraham Maliet Mamer, the economic advisor for the economic cluster, called for the revision of the importation tariffs, adding that perishable commodities like tomatoes and onions should not necessarily be imported into the country but be produced within.
The Bank of South Sudan recently paused the dollar auction, saying it had detected irregularities from commercial banks and forex bureaus.
On Wednesday, the bank announced a dollar auction again and carried out an auction on Thursday in an attempt to lower commodity prices and save the struggling economy, but no improvement has been seen so far.
On Thursday, the local business community called on President Kiir to fire both Ohisa and Dier for their failure to tame inflation.
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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