Tuesday June 2, 03:56 PM
UPDATE 1-Sudan halves hard currency limit for travellers
KHARTOUM, June 2 (Reuters) - Sudan, under U.S. sanctions and hurt by lower oil prices, has halved the amount of hard currency that exchange bureaus may offer departing travellers to the equivalent of 1,500 euros ($2,135), state media said on Tuesday.
An official at Sudan's central bank said the move was in response to declining foreign currency reserves. The central bank had previously allowed travellers to buy up to 3,000 euros.
'The request is ... in line with the policy of the Bank of Sudan to minimise the demand for foreign exchange,' said Mohammed Osman, an official in the bank's policy unit. 'We have had a big drop in our forex reserves.'
Of the money that may be exchanged, only a third should be given out in cash, while the remainder could be made available in the form of a bank transfer, state news agency SUNA said.
Sudan has said previously that it had been protected from the worst ravages of the global economic slowdown due to sanctions imposed by the United States and others which had insulated it from the crisis.
Washington imposed economic sanctions on Sudan in 1997 and labelled it a 'state sponsor of terrorism'. Ties were strained further by the conflict in Darfur, where the U.N. says 300,000 people have died in ethnic and politically driven conflict.
Sudan, a modest oil producer, said last month it expects its economy to grow by up to 6 percent this year, helped by growing revenues from the export of livestock and related products, but down from 8 to 9 percent growth Sudan says it recorded in 2008.
U.S. companies are banned from doing business with Africa's largest country, while Sudan is barred from using U.S. technology and equipment.
(Reporting by Skye Wheeler; Writing by Cynthia Johnston; editing by Mike Peacock) ($1=.7026 Euro) Keywords: SUDAN CURRENCY/
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