Sudan Starts 2021 With 500% Increase in Electricity Prices

Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (not pictured) address the media at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, on February 14, 2020. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo
Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (not pictured) address the media at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, on February 14, 2020. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo
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Sudan Starts 2021 With 500% Increase in Electricity Prices

Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (not pictured) address the media at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, on February 14, 2020. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo
Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (not pictured) address the media at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, on February 14, 2020. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo

The Sudanese people have welcomed the new year with increased prices of electricity for the residential and industrial sectors, despite the government’s pledges to maintain the subsidies for electricity in the budget of 2021.

The budget, however, is expected to negatively impact the economic and social conditions.

The increases surpassed the 500 percent for the residential sector, and the price of kilowatt rose from 80 piasters to SGD6.35. As for the industrial sector, the price for one kilowatt rose to SGD10.

On the occasion of the country's Independence Day, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok pledged to find solutions to the economic crises, signaling major and strategic breakthroughs in the economic file after removing the country from the US State Sponsors of Terrorism list.

During ongoing talks regarding the budget, the parties of Sudan's ruling political coalition asserted that no increases will be imposed on the subsidized services and goods, which include fuels, electricity wheat, medicine, and cooking gas.

The transitional government in Sudan has been imposing strict economic measures, since August 2019, starting from decontrolling fuel prices which aggravated the living condition.

Economist Kamal Karrar commented on this, saying that the increase in electricity bills by such a huge amount represents an additional burden that citizens, especially those with low-income, are obliged to bear.

This will have repercussions on various industrial and productive sectors in the country, Karrar added.



Egypt's GDP Growth at 4.3% in Second Quarter vs 2.3% a Year Earlier

Residents of Ezbet Hamada in Cairo's El Matareya district peer from their balconies to celebrate a mass break-fast, "Iftar" during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP)
Residents of Ezbet Hamada in Cairo's El Matareya district peer from their balconies to celebrate a mass break-fast, "Iftar" during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP)
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Egypt's GDP Growth at 4.3% in Second Quarter vs 2.3% a Year Earlier

Residents of Ezbet Hamada in Cairo's El Matareya district peer from their balconies to celebrate a mass break-fast, "Iftar" during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP)
Residents of Ezbet Hamada in Cairo's El Matareya district peer from their balconies to celebrate a mass break-fast, "Iftar" during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP)

Egypt's GDP growth rate increased to 4.3% in the second quarter of its 2024/25 year compared with 2.3% in the same period a year earlier, the planning ministry said on Wednesday.

GDP grew along with total investments, though public investments were below 40% of the total. Several sectors supported growth, including non-oil manufacturing activity, which was up by 17.74%, and tourism activity, which surged 18%. The fiscal year began on July 1.

Some sectors contracted in the second quarter of fiscal 2024/25, including the Suez Canal, where activity fell by 70%.

Extraction activity growth fell 9.2%, on the back of oil extraction activity, which slipped 7.6% and gas by 19.6%.