SUDAN POLITICAL ALERT: International Monetary Fund - IMF Staff Completes 2019 Article IV Mission to Sudan

23/12/2019: International Monetary Fund - IMF Staff Completes 2019 Article IV Mission to Sudan

In calls for “bold and comprehensive” reforms to stabilise Sudan’s economy and reverse declining growth, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) office in Sudan suggested that the government expand social safety nets, and for structural reforms to focus on anti-corruption measures that would improve the business environment and governance.

Attributing Sudan’s declining fiscal position to “ballooning” fuel subsidies, the IMF argue that Sudanese economic growth requires a liberalised exchange rate and the phasing out of fuel subsidies, with “substantial” social transfers needed to mitigate the impact of adjustment on vulnerable groups.

The IMF called for the aforementioned reforms to be “carefully” sequenced, preceded and accompanied by an “extensive” information and communication campaign that reaches a broad cross-section of society – and “explains the rationale for reform, the cost of the status quo, potential adverse effects and mitigating measures.”