	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 billion dlrs is some mln dlrs in arrears to the imf which declared it ineligible for fresh loans in february last year in february sudan announced a pct devaluation of its pound against the dollar adjusting the official exchange rate to 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 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 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 billion dlrs to help khartoum to pay more sudan has an annual debt liability of nearly mln dlrs but set aside only some mln dlrs to service debts in the fiscal year ending next june reuter 
