By John Akoon Dau
The government has revealed a plan of increasing the civil servants salaries by 400% to help relieve some hardship on the costs of living for civil servants.
On 8th July 2023 on the occasion of South Sudan 12th anniversary independence day, President Kiir said the government is aware of the negatives impact of high prices in the market due to the weakening of pound.
‘’ Fellow citizen, on economic difficulties, your government is aware of the negative impact of high prices in the market due to the weakening of our pound. To address this, the cabinet resolved to increase salaries for civil servants by 400%.” Kiir said.
He revealed that this proposed increment is included in the fiscal year 2023- 2024 which is now in parliament for further study and final approval. The cabinet believes this modest increment will help to relieve some hardship on the cost of living for civil servants, while we continue to improve on our resource envelope before further increment can be made.
He added that the government will also exploring sourcing food supplies from the region that would be sold at subsidized prices through national companies with requisite experience in management and distribution of such items. He added that these two measures will serves as mitigating factors on the current economic difficulties as we works to find a permanent solutions.
In South Sudan, during the past three years, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of South Sudan has fluctuated because of changes in oil prices and so has the value added by the petroleum sector. The country is still remains in a serious humanitarian crisis. Some 9.4 million people, 76% of the population, are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2023, an increase of half a million people compared to 2022. Women and children continue to be the most affected.
