Black market currency traders in Sudan put their business on hold on Sunday to assess the impact of new government measures aimed at closing a wide gap between the official and unofficial forex rates.
From Monday, official foreign exchange bureaus will be allowed to buy and sell dollars based on the unofficial market rate rather than the official value of 2.7 Sudanese pounds for one dollar, said Abdelmoneim Nour al-Din, deputy general secretary of the forex dealers' association.
He said his association would announce a daily price and start buying at 5.2 pounds per dollar, slightly off last week's black market rate of 5.8 pounds to the dollar.
For the illegal black market traders who do business from street corners or cubbyhole offices, the new rules mean uncertainty.
"We're gonna wait and see," said one, who like many others had suspended operations.
"Today we stopped doing business. We will hold onto the foreign currency we have until the market stabilises" and the new rate becomes clearer, said another trader.
Bankrupt Sudan has lost billions of dollars in oil receipts since South Sudan gained independence last year, leaving Sudan plagued by soaring prices, a severe shortage of dollars needed to pay for imports, and a plunging currency.
The black market rate jumped above six pounds per dollar after South Sudan occupied the north's main oil region of Heglig in April, during border fighting which raised fears of all-out war between Sudan and South Sudan.
The government has stuck to its fixed exchange rate of about 2.7 pounds for one US dollar, but the black market rate has been well above 4.0 since late last year.
Asked whether the new rules for forex bureaus amounted to a devaluation, one economist said the answer was unclear and he was still trying to figure out what had happened.
"This is really legalisation of the black market," said another analyst, University of Khartoum economist Mohamed Eljack Ahmed. He added that the black market rate had essentially become the official rate.
He doubted the new rules will increase the amount of dollars in the economy or bring down the black market rate. Illegal traders would buy from the official dealers and hold their currency to sell at a profit.
At the same time, he said the measures will increase prices of imported goods, adding to the burden of Sudan's poor already struggling with an inflation rate that jumped to 28.6 percent in April.
One black market trader said the illegal rate will fall only if the central bank can inject currency into the market. "If not, the rate will go higher and higher," he predicted.
Local media reports last week said the government had received a large inflow of foreign cash which would help to strengthen the pound.
But if that were the case, the university economist asked, why had the government adopted the new rules for forex bureaus? Even if there had been an inflow of dollars from abroad, the government had not revealed the amount.
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The variation will likely be caused by the programmer who designed the program. Depending on his selection, research, or beliefs, the programmer may involve or omit certain indicators available, all of which could guide the course in deciding whether to ...Money market fund assets rose to $2.569 trillion - Yahoo Finance
NEW YORK (AP) -- Total U.S. money market mutual fund assets rose by $1.19 billion to $2.569 trillion for the week that ended Wednesday, the Investment Company Institute said Thursday.
Assets of the nation's retail money market mutual funds fell $1.26 billion to $889.51 billion, the Washington-based mutual fund trade group said. Assets of taxable money market funds in the retail category fell $820 million to $702.41 billion. Tax-exempt retail fund assets fell $450 million to $187.10 billion.
Meanwhile, assets of institutional money market funds rose $2.45 billion to $1.679 trillion. Among institutional funds, taxable money market fund assets rose $3.43 billion to $1.592 trillion; assets of tax-exempt funds fell $980 million to $87.06 billion.
The seven-day average yield on money market mutual funds was 0.03 percent in the week that ended Tuesday, unchanged from the previous week, said Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet Inc. in Westborough, Mass.
The 30-day average yield was also unchanged from last week at 0.03 percent. The seven-day compounded yield was flat at 0.03 percent. The 30-day compounded yield was unchanged at 0.03 percent, Money Fund Report said.
The average maturity of portfolios held by money market mutual funds was unchanged from the previous week at 45 days.
The online service Bankrate.com said its survey of 100 leading commercial banks, savings and loan associations and savings banks in the nation's 10 largest markets showed the annual percentage yield available on money market accounts was unchanged from last week at 0.13 percent.
The North Palm Beach, Fla.-based unit of Bankrate Inc. said the annual percentage yield available on interest-bearing checking accounts was unchanged from the week before at 0.06 percent.
Bankrate.com said the annual percentage yield on six-month certificates of deposit was unchanged from the previous week at 0.22 percent. The yield on one-year CDs was also unchanged at 0.33 percent. It was flat at 0.53 percent on two-and-a-half-year CDs and held steady at 1.13 percent on five-year CDs.
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