Gov’t to introduce measures to strengthen pound against dollar
Elisabeth Janaina
Gov’t to introduce measures to strengthen pound against dollar
Obaj Shago | February 12, 2017 | 3:01 pm
USD 100 amounts to SSP12,000 -as of Saturday 11, Feb, 2016 at the 'Black market' price
The National Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank say they are working to reduce exchange rates of South Sudanese Pounds against foreign currencies in order to reduce market prices.
This comes during a meeting between the Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau and the Governor of Central Bank, Dr. Othom Rago Ajak. Both officials say they discussed the current economic situation in the country.
The Governor of Central Bank, Dr. Othom Ajak Rago told SSBC television on Saturday that the two institutions are exploring ways to manage the high inflation affecting all sectors of the economy.
Dr. Othom said one of the ideas is to pump more hard currency into the market.“You see if the demand is very high, the price has to go up. So such situation is fought by increasing the supply. We intend to do that,” said Dr. Othom.
Stephen Dhiu Dau, the Minister of Finance also said they are going to review the exchange rate of the South Sudanese Pounds against foreign currencies.He said they intend to somehow strengthen the pounds against the dollar. Mr. Dhieu however, said the government will not interfere with the ‘free-market’ system, IN WHICH THE PRICES FOR GOODS AND SERVICES ARE DETERMINED BY THE OPEN MARKET AND CONSUMERS.
“We intended to coordinate on monitoring and fiscal policies and the current situation the status of economic generally. We have reviewed the recent development in the market including exchange rate of the SSP against the foreigner currencies,” said Dhieu.
SOUTH SUDAN ADOPTED THIS SYSTEM WHICH ALLOWS FORCES OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND TO FUNCTION FREELY FROM ANY INTERVENTION BY A GOVERNMENT, PRICE-SETTING MONOPOLY, OR OTHER AUTHORITY.
“We are committed to the market policy the freedom of the market and we as the government together with the Central Bank we also intervene as one of market players,” He added.This week, the rate of a hundred U.S dollar sales at Twelve Thousand in the parallel market, known as, the ‘Black market.’