South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Benjamin Takpiny
Traders have been asked by the Central Equatoria State Chamber of Commerce not to rush to hike prices of commodities to gain exorbitant profits, following the recent depreciation of the South Sudanese Pound against the U.S dollar.
The Chairperson of the Central Equatoria State Chamber of Commerce, Robert Pitia Francis on Tuesday said that traders should consider charging fair prices as they provide services to the population.
He acknowledged that some traders have already increased t prices citing high cost of importing goods after the SSP lost value against the dollar.
The SSP is currently exchanging with the dollar at 1400 from the previous 1200 SSP in early January this year.
“My advice to the traders is let them not take advantage of the situation to increase the prices randomly, my second advise goes to the government that in any country there is monetary policy controlled by government especially ministry of finance and the Central Bank, I am requesting them to work hard so that this issue is addressed so that at least when the issue of dollar is stabilizes, prices will automatically stabilize,” Pitia said in an interview in Juba.
Pitia disclosed that South Sudan relies heavily on imports which require availability of hard currency, adding that this also leads to imported inflation.
Hard currency is a major issue because most of the materials are brought from outside and if transport goes up it forces the traders to increase the prices,” he said.
Traders in Juba have raised prices of commodities in order to keep their businesses afloat, and this has left many consumers fuming.
