Sky-High Sudan Inflation Slows for First Time in Over a Year
Sudan’s Sky-High Inflation Slows for First Time in Months
(Bloomberg) -- Sudanese inflation slowed for the first time in more than a year to reach 387.6% in August, signaling pressure on consumers may start to ease after a long period of economic upheaval.
The deceleration from 422.8% in July came as costs for foodstuffs and imported goods both saw slowdowns, the Central Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday in a report. The drop in the headline inflation rate was a first since the toppling of former dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
The decline was largely due to stability in the country’s exchange rate following a devaluation of the currency earlier in the year, as well as lower prices for essential food items, according to Alaalim Abdul Gani, the head of the economic department in the bureau of statistics.
Sudan is in the midst of an economic-reform program spearheaded by the International Monetary Fund, that led the government to remove fuel subsidies, spurring protests in the capital, Khartoum.
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