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Death toll from Sudan fuel price demos nears 30

Press TV – September 26, 2013

The death toll from three days of protests over a cut in fuel subsidies in Sudan has reached to nearly 30.

Protests broke out in the country on September 23 following a government decision to lift fuel subsidies to raise revenue.

According to initial reports, seven people died during the protests, but a hospital source in Khartoum’s twin city Omdurman said the bodies of 21 people had been received since the protests began on September 23. That announcement put the death at nearly 30 people.

The source also stated that all the victims were civilians.

Activists are scheduled to hold fresh protests in the capital on Thursday.

On Wednesday, security forces fired tear gas and used force to disperse the demonstrators in Khartoum and Omdurman.

The demonstrators burned vehicles in a hotel car park near Khartoum International Airport, and a petrol station in the area was also set alight.

On September 24, protesters stormed and torched the offices of the ruling National Congress Party in Omdurman.

Sudan’s Education Ministry announced that schools in the capital would remain closed until the end of the month.

Sudan has been plagued by running inflation and a weakening currency since it lost billions of dollars in oil revenues after South Sudan gained independence two years ago, taking with it some 75 percent of crude production of the formerly united country.


Sudan Tribune | September 25, 2013

… The Sudanese embassy in Washington said in a press release that the lifting of fuel subsidies was due to the US economic sanctions.

“Due to continuing economic sanctions against the peoples of Sudan, the Government of Sudan lifted subsidies for gasoline. Some citizens violently protested this necessary economic measure by burning government buildings, gasoline stations, shopping malls and private property. Some also attacked the police, who defended themselves while protecting public and private property,” the embassy said.

It also denied imposing an internet blackout.

“The Government of Sudan did not block internet access. Among other targets, violent protesters burned facilities of Canar Telecommunications Company, which hosts the core base of internet services for Sudan. These fires resulted in continuing internet black outs across Sudan,” it added.

“The Government of Sudan and Canar Telecom have now partially restored internet service and will work until internet access is fully restored”.

Renesys Corp., a company that maps the pathways of the Internet, said according to Associated Press that it could not confirm whether the blackout was government-orchestrated. But the outage recalls a similarly dramatic outage in Egypt, Sudan’s neighbour, when authorities shut off Internet access during that country’s 2011 uprising.

“It’s either a government-directed thing or some very catastrophic technological failure that just happens to coincide with violent riots happening in the city,” said senior analyst Doug Madory. He said it was almost a “total blackout.”

On Monday, the Sudanese cabinet formally endorsed a decision that has been circulated the night before by which prices of gasoline and diesel were increased by almost 100%.

A gallon of gasoline now costs 21 Sudanese pounds ($4.77 based on official exchange rate) compared to 12.5 pounds ($2.84).

Diesel also went from 8 pounds ($1.81) a gallon to 14 pounds ($3.18).

Cooking gas cylinders are now are priced at 25 pounds ($5.68) from 15 pounds ($3.40).

The cabinet also raised the US dollar exchange rate for importing purposes to 5.7 pounds compared to 4.4. The black market rate now stands at 8.2.

Senior Sudanese officials including president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir have defended the measure saying the only alternative would be an economic collapse as the state budget can no longer continue offering the generous subsidies on petroleum products to its people.

Sudan’s oil boom that fuelled an unprecedented economic growth and a relative prosperity over the last decade came to an end with the independence of South Sudan which housed around three quarters of the crude reserves prior to the country’s partition. … Full article

September 26, 2013 Posted by | Economics, Malthusian Ideology, Phony Scarcity | , , , , | Leave a comment

Sudan’s National Congress Party defiant amid electricity rates hike protests in Khartoum

Sudan Tribune | July 22, 2012

KHARTOUM – Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has again dismissed the significance of protests that erupted in different part of the country over the last month describing them as “isolated”.

On Sunday night some hundreds of demonstrators took the streets in areas south of the capital Khartoum to protest a previously unannounced increase in electricity rates that were introduced yesterday which were as high as 150%.

There was no official explanation from the government regarding the rate change.

The move contradicted government assertions made in the past that electricity rates would remain unchanged following the inauguration of the multi-billion dollar Merowe dam in northern Sudan three years ago.

Police and security officers managed to disperse the protests which continued until late into the night in Buri Lamab and and Jebel Awlia areas in Khartoum State.

Abdel-Jalil al-Karoori, a member of the NCP leadership bureau, said that the protests that began in late June are “isolated” and not reflective of the general sentiments among the people.

He stressed that the government is putting significant efforts to contain the economic crisis and accused the opposition of attempting to exploit it politically.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is forecasting that Sudan’s GDP growth will shrink by 7.3% in 2012 following the secession of the oil-rich South a year ago. South Sudan now controls what used to be 75% of the formerly united Sudan’s oil production worth billions of dollars.

The government scrambled to find alternatives in the form of expanding gold exploration which is not expected to make up for the revenue shortfall any time soon. Moreover, Sudanese officials have made little progress in attempts to get financial aid from Arab and friendly nations.

China, a major ally of Sudan, has suspended funding to dozens of projects citing the lack of oil collateral after South Sudan broke away.

In a bid to redeem the state’s ailing finances, the government announced a number of measures including the lifting subsidies on fuel which increased frustration among ordinary Sudanese who are struggling to make ends meet amid rising prices.

Annual inflation hit 37.2% in June this year, double the level in June 2011.

Furthermore, the government partially devalued the currency in a bid to further align it with the black market exchange rate and encourage those with US dollars to sell them in the official market. The move meant that Sudan will pay more for imports considering that much of its needs, including many basic food products come from abroad.

The government has also slashed ministries on the federal and local levels to cut expenses but economists say that the step is largely symbolic and would have a negligible impact on the budget.

Despite widespread anger among Sudanese citizens with the measures, only small protests broke out, which saw the participation of few hundred. Khartoum insists that the demonstrations do not amount to an “Arab Spring” as activists have hoped.

In Khartoum, a senior NCP official further downplayed its significance.

“Of more than 5,000 mosques in Khartoum only two protested [after Friday prayers]. That can give you the size of the whole thing,” NCP’s external relations secretary Ibrahim Ghandour told Reuters.

Ghandour revealed that the government would keep in place some fuel subsidies until the end of 2013 to minimise social pressures.

“I don’t think the government will go and fully lift subsidies to oil. That would be a very unwise political and economic decision,” he said.

The NCP official said the austerity measures would generate savings of 7 billion pounds, enough to close a finance gap of around 6.5 billion pounds, stated by Finance Minister Ali Mahmoud Abdel-Rasool, due to the loss of oil revenues.

“The goodies… of those economic arrangements are expected to start coming out at the end of the year provided that the Bank of Sudan [central bank] was able to support the pound,” Ghandour said.

He acknowledged that the central bank has been unable to stop a slide of the pound against the dollar, despite the partial devaluation.

“Until now they managed [to stabilise] to a degree but now the dollar is coming up in the equivalent [black] market,” the NCP official said.

“The Bank of Sudan [central bank] cannot in my opinion continue to support the pound against the dollar. They need new measures,” Ghandour added.

To stop the slide Ghandour said the central bank should license more foreign currency exchange bureaus to attract more dollars from Sudanese who are using the black market.

“Why don’t we open exchange offices for whoever wishes to sell and buy?” he said. “There are few very exchange offices.”

However, he ruled out a total liberalisation of the exchange rate, saying this would be a “disastrous” move.

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July 23, 2012 Posted by | Economics, Timeless or most popular | , , , , | Leave a comment

Sudanese poor not part of ‘uprising’

Al Akhbar | July 19, 2012

Sudan’s millions of poor have yet to surge into the streets to back scattered Arab uprising-style protests as government austerity measures try to stem soaring prices and a falling currency.

Inflation reached 37 percent year-on-year in June and jumped almost 10 points in May but the demonstrations, sparked by high food prices, have been largely youth driven.

“So far the movement is concentrated with students and protest activists,” one veteran activist said, adding it could take time for the “oppressed” poor to rise up.

Sudanese history shows that “usually the poor join late,” following the professional classes, said University of Khartoum economist Mohammed Eljack Ahmed.

But more than a month after protests began at the University of Khartoum there has been no mass support from professionals, although lawyers have demonstrated.

“So far they are so limited,” Ahmed said of the protests.

Demonstrations spread to include a cross-section of people, but often only in groups of 100 or 200. Protests have lately focused on Fridays at a mosque linked to the opposition Umma party in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman.

Rallies have not attracted the tens of thousands of students, engineers, lawyers and trade unionists who toppled Sudanese military regimes in 1964 and 1985.

Sudan, with more than 30 million people, has a poverty rate of 46.5 percent, the United Nations says.

In its latest report on Sudan the World Bank described as “alarming” the 28.6 percent annual inflation rate reached in April, with prices having gone even higher since.

The bank said food prices were mainly behind the inflation, which was “partly due to the rising import cost of basic goods as a result of weakening local currency value.”

Sudan’s pound has tumbled on the black market from about four pounds per one dollar in September to around six now. Some say it could drop to 10 or more if inflation is not contained.

The pound has been under pressure since South Sudan separated in July 2011, taking with it about 75 percent of Sudanese oil production that is worth billions of dollars and was the country’s largest source of hard currency.

Loss of oil revenue has led to “serious external and internal deficits, inflation and economic hardship”, the World Bank said.

Failure to agree with South Sudan on oil fees cost the Sudanese economy another 6.5 billion pounds ($1.48 billion), Finance Minister Ali Mahmud al-Rasul has said.

The fees, which South Sudan would pay for exporting its oil through Sudan’s pipeline and port, are a major issue to be negotiated at African Union-led talks being held in Addis Ababa.

Trying to address the fiscal imbalance, Sudan announced measures in June that Rasul said would save $1.5 billion.

The government devalued the pound from 2.70 per dollar to 4.40, while sanctioning a trading band that lets the price range to 5.30, closer to the unofficial rate.

An international economist said the “very significant” depreciation should lead to a balance of payments adjustment, boosting exports and curbing imports after the loss of oil revenues.

But foreign reserves, needed to pay for imports, remain “very, very low” despite a “sizeable amount” that apparently arrived from offshore, said the economist, asking for anonymity.

The government also said taxes on bank profits will rise along with value-added tax.

It also cut five of 31 cabinet posts, trimmed ministers’ salaries and laid off presidential advisers.

Another move led to a rise of about 50 percent in the pump price of petrol under a phasing out of fuel subsidies which had been set at 2.2 billion pounds this year.

Despite the cut in subsidies there was a rise in social safety net spending, said Paul Jenkins, resident representative of the International Monetary Fund. On the revenue side the government measures were “quite solid,” he added.

(AFP, Al-Akhbar)

July 19, 2012 Posted by | Economics | , , | Leave a comment