Sudan struggles with soaring inflation over past year

FOOD prices in Sudan have tripled over the past year, while the cost of health services increased by 90%, the United Nations has said, painting a bleak picture of conditions in the country.

“The dire economic situation in Sudan, marked by soaring inflation, is compounding chronic underdevelopment and poverty, recurrent climate shocks, disease outbreaks, violence and conflict to generate rising humanitarian needs,” the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Wednesday.

“The average price of the local food basket increased by nearly 200 percent compared to 2019, and the cost of health services increased by 90 per cent in 2020,” it added, quoting the World Food Programme (WFP). OCHA said that inflation, according to Sudan’s central bureau of statistics, had reached 170% in August.

Inflation, the U.N. agency added, was pushing up costs of basic foods such as sorghum, the price of “which is now 240% higher than one year ago and more than 680% higher than the five-year average.”

Furthermore, the depreciating Sudanese pound is “eroding families’ purchasing power and ability to provide for themselves,” OCHA said. “Over 9.6 million people are severely food insecure at the peak of the lean season (June to September),” OCHA added, citing the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report. Sudan declared a state of economic emergency earlier this month to avert a downturn due to the dramatic fall of its local currency against the U.S. dollar and soaring inflation. Economic hardship, which triggered protests in 2018 that led to the ouster of former President Omar al-Bashir, remains a pressing challenge.