South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has admitted that his country is reeling from an unprecedented economic crisis due to the ongoing civil war.

Kiir said this while delivering his state of the nation address to mark the country’s 6th Independence anniversary on Sunday.

“It is no secret that the war situation in the country and the global decline in the oil prices have negatively affected our economy,” he said.

However, he said the government is working tirelessly to arrest the economic crisis. “Although the South Sudanese Pound is still weak against the dollar, it has been stable for some months now,” said Kiir.

The South Sudanese leader further said his administration has introduced many credible economic reforms and that it is working in cordial partnership with the international financial institutions to achieve economic recovery and growth.

“The stability of the exchange rate is an encouraging indicator that will soon translate into improvement in our daily lives.  We must increase our economic output, particularly agricultural production,” he said.

Kiir acknowledged the reality that food production and other economic activities cannot be fully achieved while war prevails in the country. “Therefore, in order to fully end this economic hardship, we must continue to make peace and security as our main priority,” he said.

“We must bring the conflict in our country to an end. This will in turn attract investors and increase local productivity.  It will help us to streamline government expenditure into the productive sectors of the economy,” he added.