KHARTOUM (Reuters) -Sudan’s acting cabinet passed the country’s 2022 budget on Wednesday, as a military-led ruling council attempts to carry on in the face of ongoing pro-democracy protests.
The country remains stuck in an economic crisis that had shown signs of possibly easing before an Oct. 25 military coup which led to the suspension of most of the foreign assistance it was relying on to help fund the budget.
The statement from the acting cabinet did not give details on the budget, which is typically passed in December, or on funding sources.
Military leaders reinstated Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in November in an attempt to safeguard economic reforms, but he resigned earlier this month after appointing acting deputies, who voted on the budget.
On Wednesday, military leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan assigned the deputies ministerial-level duties within a caretaker government, his office said in a statement.
A joint meeting of the country’s military-led Sovereign Council and cabinet is expected to ratify the budget.
Traders on Sudan’s black market said the pound plunged to 490 to the dollar on Wednesday from 465 pounds a day prior. The exchange rate had stayed stable around 450 pounds to the dollar prior to the coup and in the weeks following.
Jibril Ibrahim, finance minister of the dissolved government, told Reuters in December https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/exclusive-sudan-cut-off-650-million-international-funding-after-coup-2021-12-08 that the country lost access to hundreds of millions of funding in November, and said the country would pay its bills through tax and customs as well as revenue from gold and state companies.
He said those sources would not be sufficient to cover everything.
Sudan has seen constant protests since the coup, and pro-democracy activists called a two-day general strike this week and barricaded main roads into the capital. Demonstrations have also erupted in other cities, with protesters demanding an end to military involvement in politics.
The “Friends of Sudan”, a group of Western and Arab donor countries that had contributed hundreds of millions to Sudan in the two years prior to the coup, reiterated their support for UN-led talks.
“Concrete steps to advance a civilian-led transition to democracy will create conditions conducive for the international community to restore or expand economic assistance,” they said.
(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz and Nafisa Eltahir; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
