JUBA, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said it is encouraged by the effective use of its $225 million grants by the government of South Sudan.
The IMF Mission Chief for South Sudan and a team from Washington visited South Sudan in the last two weeks to follow on how the government of South Sudan uses its over $200 million grants meant to help stabilize the economy of the country.
The financial institution has been providing grants from the Rapid Credit Facility to South Sudan within the last 15 months.
IMF Mission Chief for South Sudan, Nikop Hobdari said they are encouraged by the achievements made by the Central Bank of South Sudan in stabilizing the economy.
“We are encouraged by the economic reforms in South Sudan since we engaged more closely with South Sudan about one year and a half earlier. Extended reforms have been introduced since March last year, and they have brought stability in the markets and they have reduced prices in the last twelve months,” he said.
Hobdari adds: “We will discuss with the minister and the governor on how to sustain those gains and how the stability can be maintained.”
Speaking during a meeting in Juba, South Sudan’s governor of Central Bank, Moses Makur Deng says his institution will continue to maintain necessary economic reforms.
“What is important is how to continue with these reforms and maintain the stability that has been achieved by the Central Bank since March last year. What is important is to sustain the intervention of the bank in the foreign exchange markets to stabilize the exchange rate and therefore the value of the South Sudanese Pounds, and that is the main target now,” he said.
Moses Makur adds, “We will watch out for any eventual challenges and we will be in close collaboration with the IMF team in Washington and the IMF team here in Juba.”
In his comments, the First Undersecretary in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Simon Kimau Ladu said, “We as government are willing to do the reforms and we have taken these reforms seriously. And so it is our reforms and the IMF is helping us.”
The team from Washington has been in the country for the last two weeks meeting members of parliament, ministry of finance officials, and the governor of the Central Bank.
The Bank of South Sudan has been auctioning $8 million weekly to commercial banks and forex bureaus in the country to help in market stabilization.
Source: Nam News Network