Sudanese Pound Devalued by 19% as Banks Freed to Set Rates

Sudanese authorities have decided to unify the exchange rate of the Sudanese pound, weeks after the currency’s value began to slip again on the black market. (Getty Images)
Sudanese authorities have decided to unify the exchange rate of the Sudanese pound, weeks after the currency’s value began to slip again on the black market. (Getty Images)
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Sudanese Pound Devalued by 19% as Banks Freed to Set Rates

Sudanese authorities have decided to unify the exchange rate of the Sudanese pound, weeks after the currency’s value began to slip again on the black market. (Getty Images)
Sudanese authorities have decided to unify the exchange rate of the Sudanese pound, weeks after the currency’s value began to slip again on the black market. (Getty Images)

Sudanese banks were selling dollars at a rate of 530 pounds on Tuesday, a drop of about 19% from the previous rate, after authorities moved to counter a slide in the value of the pound on a resurgent black market.

The central bank said on Monday that banks and currency exchanges would set their own exchange rates without central bank intervention. An emergency economic committee under Sudan's ruling council had said official and black market exchange rates would be unified.

Both the Bank of Khartoum, Sudan's largest bank, and the Saudi Sudanese Bank, had set a rate of 530 pounds to the dollar on Tuesday morning, from about 445 pounds previously, a Reuters reporter said. Other banks set similar rates.

The dollar was trading at around 560 pounds on the parallel market.

Sudan's economy has come under renewed pressure since substantial international support was suspended following a military coup in late October.

The military dissolved a civilian government that had carried out rapid economic reforms, including a sharp devaluation of the pound under a "managed float" policy in February 2021.

After that devaluation, the exchange rate had held steady for several months, and the black market had all but disappeared before it began to resurface in recent weeks.



Türkiye's Central Bank Lowers Key Interest Rate to 47.5%

A girl sells plastic items to people in the Kadikoy district in Istanbul, Türkiye, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A girl sells plastic items to people in the Kadikoy district in Istanbul, Türkiye, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
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Türkiye's Central Bank Lowers Key Interest Rate to 47.5%

A girl sells plastic items to people in the Kadikoy district in Istanbul, Türkiye, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A girl sells plastic items to people in the Kadikoy district in Istanbul, Türkiye, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Türkiye’s central bank lowered its key interest rate by 2.5 percentage points to 47.5% on Thursday, carrying out its first rate cut in nearly two years as it tries to control soaring inflation.
Citing slowing inflation, the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee said it was reducing its one-week repo rate to 47.5% from the current 50%.
The committee said in a statement that the overall inflation trend was “flat” in November and that indicators suggest it is likely to decline in December, The Associated Press reported.

Demand within the country was slowing, helping to reduce inflation, it said.
Inflation in Türkiye surged in recent years due to declining foreign reserves and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s unconventional economic policy of lowering rates as a way to tame inflation — which he later abandoned.
Inflation stood at 47% in November, after having peaked at 85% in late 2022, although independent economists say the real rate is much higher than the official figures.

Most economists argue that higher interest rates help control inflation, but the Turkish leader had fired central bank governors for failing to fall in line with his previous rate-cutting policies.

Following a return to more conventional policies under a new economic team, the central bank raised interest rates from 8.5% to 50% between May 2023 and March 2024. The bank had kept rates steady at 50% until Thursday's rate cut.
The high inflation has left many households struggling to afford basic goods, such as food and housing.