Sudan's economy suffers losses estimated at billions of dollars

News report by Mohammad Abdulaziz KHARTOUM, April 23 (KUNA) -- A year into the brutal civil war in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), this Arab country's economy has suffered major losses estimated at billions of dollars.
Sudan's Minister of Finance Dr. Jibril Ibrahim estimated that the losses may reach USD 200 billion, without taking into account the losses of the country's missed economic opportunities, possibly estaimted at USD 700 billion.
The amount of losses increased from USD 20 billion during the first two months of the war to reach about USD 700 billion according to preliminary estimates by economists.
Economist Dr. Wael Fahmy told KUNA that the estimates of the Minister of Finance are equivalent to the cost of daily expenses spent on military operations, at a rate of half a billion dollars per day during the early stages, but doubled after the fighting expanded to 70 percent of Sudan.
Fahmy warned that the continuation of the war will lead to a further downfall in national production and perhaps a total collapse in public financial revenues.
In a statement to KUNA, journalist and economic analyst Ahmad Khalil, said that the continuation of the war led to the destruction of infrastructure, the halting of large development projects, and the collapse of the services and industry sector.
There are no accurate statistics on the amount of losses, according to Khalil, but estimates showed that infrastructure and information infrastructure losses amounted to USD 36 billion.
Current and future agriculture sector losses surpassed USD 20 billion, while the industrial sector lost USD 15 billion, the education sector lost USD 16 billion, the health sector lost USD 13 billion and the banking sector lost about 20 billion dollars.
The lack of availability of banking services, limited access to them, and a widespread cash shortage is putting the banking sector in a severe crisis.
A hundred bank branches operating in Sudan were subjected to looting, theft, and destruction, the percentage of looted funds reached more than 38 percent in banks in the capital of Khartoum only.
Sudanese people are struggling to buy basic items after food prices in Sudan rose by 73 percent since last year, and 350 percent higher than the five-year average due to the interruption of supply chains and the decline in the value of the local currency by about 56.15 percent.
The exchange rate of one U.S. dollar fell from 570 Sudanese pounds before the outbreak of war to 1,300 pounds, which led to an increase in goods and services, exports and imports in 2023 declined by 23 percent compared to the previous year.
After the war destroyed Sudan's agriculture and economy, leaving its victims hungry and penniless, there have been international warnings that millions of people in Sudan and its neighboring countries are threatened by famine.
Khalil revealed that this war has made the lives of Sudanese extremely dreadful, that those who do not die from bullets and bombings are bound to because of the collapse of the economy. (end) mam.res