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Sudan Will Not Lift Wheat, Furnace Oil, Cooking Gas Subsidies this Year

Motorists queue up at a petrol station in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on January 21, 2014. (AFP)
Motorists queue up at a petrol station in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on January 21, 2014. (AFP)
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Sudan Will Not Lift Wheat, Furnace Oil, Cooking Gas Subsidies this Year

Motorists queue up at a petrol station in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on January 21, 2014. (AFP)
Motorists queue up at a petrol station in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on January 21, 2014. (AFP)

Sudan will not lift subsidies this year on wheat, cooking gas or furnace oil, which is used to produce electricity, finance minister Jibril Ibrahim said on Wednesday, a day after subsidies on gasoline and diesel were fully lifted.

Ibrahim said the government is committed to removing the so-called customs exchange rate, used to determine import duties on a range of goods, but is studying tariff levels to ensure that consumer prices are not affected.

Sudan is implementing a raft of IMF-monitored reforms, including a currency devaluation, in hopes of alleviating a protracted economic crisis and attracting foreign financing.

Ibrahim also said he was studying wide-ranging reforms for the banking system.

Sudan produced 400,000 tons of wheat in the past season which was disappointing, Jibril said. This accounted for a quarter of the country's needs of 1.6 million tons.

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US, Chinese Officials Start Geneva Talks on Easing Trade War

US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, listens to the speeches, during a bilateral meeting between Switzerland and the United States, in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday, May 9, 2025. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, listens to the speeches, during a bilateral meeting between Switzerland and the United States, in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday, May 9, 2025. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)
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US, Chinese Officials Start Geneva Talks on Easing Trade War

US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, listens to the speeches, during a bilateral meeting between Switzerland and the United States, in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday, May 9, 2025. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, listens to the speeches, during a bilateral meeting between Switzerland and the United States, in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday, May 9, 2025. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)

China's vice premier He Lipeng held talks with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent early on Saturday in Geneva in a tentative first step towards defusing a trade war that is disrupting the global economy, according to China's state-owned news agency and two people close to the talks.
Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were due to meet He in Geneva after weeks of growing tensions that have seen duties on goods imports between the world's two largest economies soar well beyond 100%.
The trade dispute, combined with US President Donald Trump's decision last month to impose duties on dozens of other countries, has disrupted supply chains, unsettled financial markets and stoked fears of a sharp global downturn.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday an 80% tariff on Chinese goods "seems right," suggesting for the first time a specific alternative to the 145% levies imposed on Chinese imports.
The location of the talks has been kept secret, although a witness saw over a dozen police cars outside a private residence in a leafy Geneva suburb.
Mercedes vans with tinted windows were seen leaving a Geneva hotel where the Chinese delegation was staying on the banks of Lake Geneva.
Earlier, a delegation of over a dozen US officials, including Bessent and Greer, were seen smiling and wearing red ties and American flags on their lapels as they left their hotel. Bessent declined to speak to reporters.