اقتصاد السودان يصارع اثار العقوبات الاقتصادية ( مقال Financial Times)

Quote: Tom Wilson in Khartoum NOVEMBER 23, 2018 Print this page0 Every day in Sudan’s dusty capital Khartoum, queues for cash machines fill the shaded sidewalks as anxious customers try to access their savings in banks that have imposed withdrawal limits as low as $11 per day. After a 20-year US trade embargo was lifted last year, government officials predicted an economic revival as their country came in from the cold. Instead, the economy has faltered, the value of the Sudanese pound is plummeting, and citizens are lining up for cash so they can convert it into hard goods. “We have an acute economic crisis because inflation is skyrocketing and the national currency is declining,” said Hassan Elhag Ali Ahmed, professor of political science at the University of Khartoum. “People are facing serious hardship trying to meet their daily needs.”  For Sudan’s strongman president Omar al-Bashir, the economic crunch is one of the biggest tests he has faced during three decades in power. It is also a warning to every country under US sanctions that the process of rehabilitation does not happen quickly. US trade is no longer prohibited, but Sudan is still unable to access IMF or World Bank support, remains outside the World Trade Organization and most western banks refuse to serve it. Since coming to power in a military coup in 1989, Mr Bashir has withstood a lot: ruptures in his ruling party; an international arrest warrant; the secession of half of his of country. But his economic troubles are eroding public trust in a new way.