Economics
ATMs Run Dry as Sudan Economic Rot Goes Beyond U.S. Embargo
- Currency devaluations, soaring inflation spur woe in Khartoum
- Chronic illiquidity signals no confidence in nation’s banks
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Going by his bank statements, Isam Ali isn’t short of money -- but in Sudan’s cash-strapped capital that’s exactly what he is.
Several times a week, the 45-year-old accountant lines up at one of the few ATMs in Khartoum still dispensing banknotes, waiting hours to withdraw the daily maximum of 2,000 Sudanese pounds ($42). That sum’s being spread increasingly thinly to feed his family, as inflation in the North African nation hits its highest in two decades, quashing hopes 2017’s lifting of U.S. sanctions could spur an economic revival.