By Radarr Africa Business Desk
LAGOS, October 24 (Radarr Africa) – Sudan’s pound hit a record low of 10,000 to the US dollar in parallel market trading on Wednesday, October 21, as the war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continued to hammer the economy, Reuters reported.
The previous low was 8,000 pounds to the dollar, and the currency lost about 20 per cent in the past month alone, according to the report by Nafisa Eltahir, carried by CNBC Africa. The official exchange rate remains at 4,200 pounds to the dollar. The parallel market last traded at that level in army-controlled areas in May. Before the war began in April 2023, the rate was about 600 pounds to the dollar.
The army-controlled government raised the customs dollar, the rate used to set import duties, to more than 5,600 this week, Reuters reported. Currency traders blamed import demand as a main driver of the slide.
The war has forced people from their homes and put basic food out of reach for many, the report said. Sudan has reduced output of key dollar earners, and gold, its main export, is increasingly smuggled abroad. The army-controlled government says the war and reconstruction require imports that drain dollars.
The government gave a similar explanation last month. Dabanga, distributed by AllAfrica on September 17, reported that Finance Minister Jibril Ibrahim attributed the pound’s decline to strong demand for foreign exchange because imports exceed exports. Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, he linked the import gap partly to events in the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and Bab El Mandeb, which raised oil prices and doubled transport and insurance costs.
Ibrahim denied that the government buys dollars on the parallel market. “The government buys gold and exports it to obtain foreign currency,” he said. He also cited the circulation of the national currency in areas controlled by the RSF as a factor in the decline.
At that time, Dabanga said, traders reported the pound had fallen below 8,000 to the dollar on the parallel market. The latest fall to 10,000 therefore came roughly five weeks after that level was reported.
Sudan’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum also commented on the effects in September. In a statement seen by Radio Dabanga, it attributed fuel queues and congestion at some petrol stations to currency volatility and delays in some banking applications, which slowed purchases. It said disruption to oil tanker movement around Bab El Mandeb had raised shipping and insurance costs, delaying supplies and pushing up some fuel prices, which it called challenges beyond the state’s control. The ministry said fuel was available and moving normally at all stations.
The gap between the official rate of 4,200 and the parallel rate of 10,000 means the market price of the dollar is more than double the official one. That gap is the clearest sign of how far the pound has moved from the official anchor since the war began.
