Feature: South Sudanese decry daily hikes of food prices

Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-20 20:20:53|Editor: Song Lifang
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JUBA, May 20 (Xinhua) -- South Sudanese continue to decry daily hikes of food prices despite government's recent tax exemption, amid a dire economic meltdown.

A worrying result is that now most urban poor people are spending up to 95 percent of their income on food, having an enormous impact on their food security.

Mary Ayak told Xinhua in Juba in an interview on Friday that the continued rise of food prices in the country is worrying because it is affecting citizen livelihoods.

"As you can see I'm buying a 50 kilogram sack of maize flour which is now costing 8,000 South Sudanese Pounds (SSP) (about 50 U.S. dollars), just one week after the government announced a tax exemption on essential commodities," Ayak said.

Ayak said that as a breadwinner, the daily increase of essential commodity prices is seriously affecting her purchasing power given that her monthly income as a government employee cannot meet the high costs of living.

"As a civil servant, my children often sleep on empty stomachs or only eat a single meal a day," she added.

According to a report published by the South Sudan National Bureau of Statistics, the inflation rate has increased by 300 percent as compared to last year.

South Sudan relies significantly on imported commodities from neighbouring Kenya, Sudan and Uganda.

The devaluating local currency deters traders from importing cargo, paralyzing the supply chain network.

This is compounded by high insecurity for traders and transporters moving goods along certain routes, which has significantly contributed to the food crisis.

James Alic Garang, an economist at the Ebony Center for Research, told Xinhua in Juba that the decision made in December 2015 by the Central Bank to abandon a fixed exchange rate regime and allow the South Sudanese Pound to float against U.S. dollars was a wrong one.

Garang noted that in order for South Sudan to achieve food security, national authorities should ensure that when food comes into the country, nobody hoards the products so that food remains affordable to citizens.

Experts said that prices of commodities countrywide are increasing on a daily basis and this has negatively impacted on the poor people, leaving a majority of them unable to afford food for their families.

Fatima Keji, a widow of four children, told Xinhua that sometimes her monthly salary can only buy a single item, like a sack of flour or tin of cooking oil.

South Sudan is a landlocked country and its only lifeline roads linking its borders to Kenya and Uganda have been made inaccessible due to widespread violence that has made prices of the few goods that enter the country to skyrocket in the markets.

Earlier this year, the UN as well as key humanitarian agencies operating inside the country declared that parts of the country are experiencing famine.

The UN says that nearly half the country's population, or about 5.5 million people, is expected to lack food by July this year.

The world's youngest nation has been mired in a civil war since 2013, when President Salva Kiir fired his deputy and archival, Riek Machar, sparking a conflict that has increasingly split the country along ethnic lines.

The 2015 peace agreement signed under regional and UN pressure had spelled economic reforms that were to salvage the nation from economic collapse.

However all the efforts were put on hold when fighting erupted in July 2016 between forces backing the former First Vice President Riek Machar and President Salva Kiir.

According to UN reports, the conflict has killed tens of thousands and displaced over two million from their homes, and forced more than 1.5 million people to flee into neighboring countries to seek refuge.

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