Sudan inflation soars above 400% as discontent grows

KHARTOUM, Sudan — Inflation in Sudan has jumped to more than 400 percent, state media reported on Sunday amid popular discontent over rising prices after a series of IMF-backed economic reforms.

"The annual inflation reached 412.75 percent in June, compared with 378.79 percent in May," the official news agency SUNA reported, quoting a government statement.

SUNA said the latest spike in the inflation rate was because of price hikes including on food.

Sudan has been going through a rocky transition since the April 2019 ouster of president Omar al-Bashir following mass protests against his rule triggered by economic hardship.

The transitional government installed in August 2019 has vowed to fix the economy which has been battered by decades of US sanctions and mismanagement under Bashir.

In recent months, Sudan scrapped diesel and petrol subsidies and carried out a managed float of the Sudanese pound to stem a rampant black market.

The measures, seen by many Sudanese as harsh, were part of reforms backed by the International Monetary Fund to enable Sudan to qualify for debt relief. 

On Friday the Paris Club, Sudan's biggest creditor, said it would cancel much of the debt owed to it by Sudan to help draw Khartoum back into the international fold.

That announcement came as part of a wider effort by the IMF to relieve more than $50 billion of Sudan's debt, around 90 percent of its total, over the next few years.

Late last month, hundreds of people took to the streets in the capital and in other cities across Sudan to demand the government's resignation over the latest reforms.