By Bida Elly David
The governor of Bank of South Sudan (BOSS) said they are setting up measures to fish out black-market money dealers over illegal speculation of currency in the exchange rate market that negatively impact prices and the local currency.
He said that continuous depreciation of the local south Sudanese Pounds against the United State dollars in relation to inflation is caused by black-market money speculators who claim to have taken control of the exchange rate market by hoarding money at home.
Speaking to the media at a press conference yesterday Johnny Ohisa the BOSS governor said it is very hard to deal with money speculators but legal measures will fish them out of the market.
“I know there are speculators and it is very hard to deal with such kinds of people. What we need is to come with measures in place to ensure that we target and deal with them accordingly,” he said.
Central Bank boss said that the banking crisis in the United States of America and the Russia invasion of Ukraine as well as global increase of prices for imported goods by African countries became factors that turned down South Sudan economy.
Governor Ohisa warned people against blaming them on the account of failing to strengthen the local currency against the United States dollar as well as fight inflation noting that reforms always take time to materialize.
“Reforms do yield results but it takes time for it to yield results. You cannot expect the reforms we put in place to immediately yield even if you take the public finance management as means of reforming the economy. It is not a one day since we will continue meeting to iron out issues that are available,” he said.
On the other hand poor promotion of domestic production where South Sudan highly depends on imported goods becomes one of the trending challenges that have passively thrown down the Country economic power.
“We don’t produce and our only source of revenue is the oil. Any increase outside there also affects us also here since we use dollars to import things
Ohisa said that Central Bank is going to guarantee continue intervention in the money market by auctioning $5 Million weekly to commercial banks and forex bureaus.
“We are going (to) continue intervention by auctioning of USD 5 Million weekly to commercial banks and forex bureaus and will increase the amount when necessary. The bank will continue to monitor and review the situation and respond with appropriate measures as the situation warrants,” he said.
Ohisa further said the bank shall also provide trade financial facility to major importers of essential commodities such as fuel, food and pharmaceuticals as a mechanism to fight inflation rate in South Sudan.
The bank governor also stated that the bank is going to lift off restrictions against commercial banks on the account of depositing time table compared to before adding that there will be increase of Central bank interest rate from 12 percent to 15 percent respectively.
“The bank of South Sudan has set to lift all restrictions on the frequency of the deposits by commercial banks with immediate effects. We are also going to increase the amount of the term deposit facility auction from SSP 10 Billion to SSP 20.9 Billion weekly
He said that South Sudan is a land locked Country that is in position to be affected in case of any negative impact on the global economy.
Johnny Ohisa admitted the fact that Dollar rate has shot in the parallel market and prices of commodities remain hectic to the expectation of the final consumers.