Sudanese opposition groups claim they are out to topple the National Congress Party government of President Bashir. The opposition says that 1,000 have been arrested in recent protests over austerity measures., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Mekki Elmograbi
Email: makkimag@gmail.com
Good Day :IMF and Sudan's New Crisis!
Date: 07/10/2012
Sudan Vision
The austerity plan that implemented by the Sudanese government turned the "summer" into "Arab Spring"! It was not a moderate spring with breeze, birds, flowers and roses; it was "the season of protests".
Surprisingly, the Sudanese government survived with very few damages, and Observers discovered that the situation in Sudan is not like Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Syria, but to some extent, it is similar to Algeria and Jordan!
The Sudanese government could now say "I have rescued myself under the shadow of the sword"; a Sudanese proverb symbolizing escaping from imminent death!
In contrast, the IMF lauded Sudan’s austerity plan and asked the Sudanese government for more austerity measures. Moreover IMF put more demands and conditions on the table asking the government to implement the complete plan according to IMF's standards.
According to its annual report, IMF said more reforms are needed to recover the Sudanese economy. "These measures are a positive step towards restoring macroeconomic stability and addressing Sudan’s macroeconomic imbalances."
"However, reaching fiscal sustainability and enhancing growth potential will require a determined continuation of the reform momentum. Stepping up structural reforms will also help address the underlying structural challenges facing the economy.
"Key reforms include: (i) a comprehensive civil service reform, (ii) banking sector restructuring, (iii) ambitious privatization program, and (iv) improving governance", IMF's report said.
In fact, IMF is calling the government to provoke fresh protests which will be serious and final in changing the regime in a bloody spring.
These are the measures mentioned by IMF and these are the expected results:
The comprehensive civil service reform means a wave of dismissing thousands of governmental employees. Restructuring the banking sector means integrating private banks in a very limited number of banks which will cause similar "wave" in banking sector.
The ambitious privatization program will cause the third wave in public sector in order to sell out some governmental companies.
As a kind of pressure the IMF reported in its annual review of the Sudanese economy that the Sudanese forex reserves will fall from 1.3 billion dollars in 2011 to 1.1 billion dollars in 2012, the levels which are not enough to cover three months but less than two months of imports.
Sudan's central bank contradicted IMF report stating that Sudan has enough forex reserves to cover five months of imports. SCB said the figure that released by IMF is not accurate but did not comment on the "new demands."
No comments:
Post a Comment