Africa’s Youngest Country Runs Out of Foreign Exchange Reserves

South Sudan gets almost all of its revenue from crude oil, but current output, at about 180,000 barrels per day (bpd), has plummeted from a peak of 250,000 bpd before the outbreak of conflict in 2013, according to official figures. “It is difficult for us at the moment to stop this rapidly increasing exchange rate, because we do not have resources, we do not have reserves,” Daniel Kech Pouch, the bank’s second deputy governor, told a news conference. South Sudan has three exchange rates – one from the central bank, from commercial banks, and from the unofficial market. Pouch said the rate for the pound from the central bank is 165 a dollar, from commercial banks about 190, and 400 from the parallel market. In addition to lower oil production, corruption is also driving the crisis, said Brian Adeba, the deputy director of policy at United States-based watchdog The Sentry, which has released several reports documenting high-level corruption. The government has denied the findings.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA