South Sudan apex bank reduces foreign exchange auction to commercial banks

The Central Bank of South Sudan said Friday it has reduced its weekly amount of foreign currency auction to commercial banks and forex bureaus citing scarcity of the local South Sudanese pound (SSP) in the market.

Moses Makur Deng, Governor of the Bank of South Sudan, said that they have reduced the weekly foreign currency auction to 5 million U.S. dollars from 13 million dollars.

“The Bank of South Sudan has seen the development in the market through fall in bidder’s numbers and bid amounts in the foreign exchange auctions which is a clear signal of SSP scarcity,” said Makur in a statement issued in the South Sudan capital, Juba.

He said the apex bank will from next week conduct one foreign exchange auction in a week, one week for commercial banks auction with an amount of 3 million dollars and the other week for forex bureaus with an amount of 2 million dollars.

South Sudan’s economy is struggling to recover from high inflation caused largely by years of conflict since December 2013 that hit its oil sector.
The country depends on oil revenues to finance 95 percent of its fiscal budget. Enditem