By Philip Buda Ladu
The Vice President for Economic Cluster Dr. James Wani Igga said the country has a gloomy and miserable economy mostly caused by the five years’ conflicts that ruined the country, floods affecting oil production and the Covid-19 constraints.
The Chair of Economic Cluster acknowledged the poor status of the country’s economy. He was speaking last Saturday at a thanks giving prayer for the recently appointed South Sudan Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, Ambassador Monday Semaya Kumba.
“Sometimes ago and a lot of decrees up to now we have a gloomy and miserable economy. Mostly caused by three things; the conflict–the five years’ conflict destroyed our social fabrics of the economy, you have also the problems of the floods and this affected even our oil production. Many wells were submerged to the extent that they cannot produce even up to now,” Dr. Igga said.
“So when I talk of our recovery, there are also factors drawing us back like the floods which have spoiled many oil fields, and then you talk of Covid-19, this also has affected our economy,” he added.
However, Dr. Igga is optimistic that despite the fact that all of those elements are crippling the economy, the future of South Sudan is not gloomy, “I can see there are changes in the future of South Sudan,” the Vice President for Economic Cluster hinted.
Dr. Igga noted that the National Parliament in their deliberation on the fiscal budget a week ago on the 14th of March, talked of the country’s inflation rate which they are crying of, and agreed to the fact there is inflation, but said it has dropped although it may not be felt.
“It has dropped a little bit from 22.8 percent to 16.3 percent and it will continue to fall, why because we also in the government and particularly, we in the economic cluster are leaving no stone unturned in an effort to improve our economy,” Dr. Igga reiterated.
He said they have embarked on efforts and measures to hold corrupt officials accountable.
“One of the things that we are adopting is a standard fiscal discipline, where we are going to fight and we are already fighting corruptions. ‘Punishing certain individuals, subjecting them to investigations and so forth, these are the things we are doing now,” Dr. Igga stressed.
The Vice President underscored that the exchange rate reform initiated by the government is taking shape, “I am sure you have seen some stability –it’s not going up too much it’s not going down too much compared to before, so we have got the formula the “Lowest Common Multiple” (LCM), and we will continue to improve that,” he emphasized.