SUDAN REJECTS IMF DEMAND FOR DEVALUATION
Sudan has rejected a demand by the
International Monetary Fund for a currency devaluation because
such a move would have a negative impact on its economy, the
official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported.
    Finance Minister Beshir Omer, quoted by SUNA, said his
government also rejected an IMF demand to lift state subsidies
on basic consumer goods.
    SUNA, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation,
said Omer made the remarks after a meeting in Khartoum
yesterday with IMF envoy Abdel-Shakour Shaalan.
    Sudan, burdened by a foreign debt of 10.6 billion dlrs, is
some 500 mln dlrs in arrears to the IMF, which declared it
ineligible for fresh loans in February last year.
    In February 1985, Sudan announced a 48 pct devaluation of
its pound against the dollar, adjusting the official exchange
rate to 2.5 pounds to the U.S. Currency.
    Since then, it has resisted pressure from main creditors
for more currency adjustments, arguing that past devaluations
had failed to boost exports but raised local consumer prices.
Sudan also has an incentive rate of four pounds to the dollar
for foreign visitors and remittances by expatriate workers.
    Dealers in Khartoum's thriving black market said the dollar
was sold at 5.5 pounds today.
    With stringent import regulations and the government
increasingly short of foreign currency, black market dollars
are used to finance smuggled imports from neighbouring
countries, mainly Egypt, Kenya, Ethiopia and Zaire.
    Western diplomats in Khartoum say the meetings between IMF
and Sudanese government officials do not amount to formal
talks, but rather an effort by the IMF to monitor Sudan's
economic performance.
    The diplomats said Sudan hoped a planned four-year economic
recovery program would be acceptable to the IMF as a serious
attempt to tackle the country's economic troubles and persuade
its Gulf Arab creditors to pay the IMF arrears.
    This, they said, could provide Sudan with a clean bill of
health from the IMF that it could take to Western government
creditors, grouped informally in the so-called Paris Club, to
reschedule debt payments.
    Twenty-three pct of Sudan's total foreign debt is owed to
members of the Paris Club, the diplomats said.
    Sudan's Finance Minister said last month the country's IMF
representative had told him the fund's executive board was "very
pleased with the 18.5 mln dlrs arrears we have paid in the past
couple of months."
    The representative, Omer Said, said IMF Managing Director
Michel Camdessus said he would ask Saudi Arabia, to which Sudan
owes about 1.4 billion dlrs, to help Khartoum to pay more.
    Sudan has an annual debt liability of nearly 900 mln dlrs
but set aside only some 200 mln dlrs to service debts in the
fiscal year ending next June 30.
 REUTER
