President Kiir: The devaluation of our currency is really devastating
By Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit, Juba, South Sudan
November 29, 2016 (SSB) — Devaluation of our currency is really devastating. We are all being affected as citizens of South Sudan by this issue. I am addressing this issue as we have come up with remedies to put it to a stop or say solutions to restore back the valuable currency we once had. This is a major thing that is contributing to our economy downfall. My people your government is working on it. Be hopeful my people, we are going through this together and the government will end it.
A strong currency means a strong economy hence a better life for the citizens of that particular country. It won’t take half a year before our currency bounces back to its original value. We are going to work seriously on our currency revaluation. We are going to adopt a type of fixed-exchange-rate monetary arrangement also known as currency board. The main objective of the currency board will be to exchange our currency for the anchor currency at a fixed rate-exercising no discretionary money system.
Changing our currency will not be a good idea otherwise it would have been an option. We treasure our currency and we want to bring back its original value without failure. The rate of depreciation of our currency against the US currency since we attained independence has been at an usually fast pace and this has been of our concern. Nothing is accomplished without a process so I am telling you that we have already started working on how to restore our currency value.
There is a great need to work on factors affecting exchange rate as they are the root cause of currency depreciation or appreciation. We need to be competitive in the market and this should start with our local businesses. If we outsmart other countries that are trading with us then it will lead to increase in our products demand in the market and this in return will lead to our currency appreciation. Your government is willing to work with the citizens to achieve this.
We are going to increase the interest rates. If our interest rates rise relative to elsewhere, it will become more attractive for everyone elsewhere to deposit money in South Sudan. The motive behind this is to let people get better return from saving in our banks. This will therefore prompts South Sudanese pounds to rise. It’s a thing that will come to pass really soon as the government is working on it.
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