South Sudan's Central Bank on Tuesday announced a plan to inject hard currency into the market to cool down exchange rate volatility.
Central Bank Governor Dier Tong Ngor told reporters in Juba that the foreign currency injection will be done soon.
“We are going to sell dollars in the market by allocating a significant amount to traders so that they can bring essential commodities,” he said.
“We have allocated a significant amount of dollars for the fuel importation and commodities as well as some money for medicines” he added.
The bank governor pointed out that the intervention will stabilize the value of the South Sudanese Pound (SSP) against the US dollar.
“The pound has lost its value against the dollar due to the impact of the recent payment of salaries to the employees. The amount of SSP that has been paid out has injected a significant amount of cash into the markets. The market is reacting to liquidity that has been paid out, roughly about 15 billion SSP has been paid and this amount constitutes 31 per cent of the total currency in circulation,” Dier explained.
The bank governor pointed out that the decision was reached at the financial institution’s monetary policy committee meeting held in the capital Juba earlier this week.
The inflation rate in South Sudan was recorded at 170.50 percent in October of 2019. Inflation Rate in South Sudan averaged 80.41 percent from 2008 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 549.40 percent in September of 2016 and a record low of -13.97 percent in November of 2013.