Sudan livestock exports reach $408 mln by end-Nov: report

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's livestock exports earned around $408 million by the end of November, up more than 20 percent from last year's total, state media said on Monday, giving a small boost to an economy reeling from the loss of oil revenues.

Sudan has been mired in an economic crisis since South Sudan, which had accounted for about three-quarters of its oil production, split away last year under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war.

The loss of revenues and foreign currency to pay for imports have led to a jump in the inflation rate, which reached over 46 percent in September.

Sudan has been trying to increase its production of gold and agricultural products, as well as the output from its remaining oilfields, to help offset the loss of southern oil. Sudan currently produces about 115,000 barrels of oil per day.

The country earned about $405 million and 2.4 million euros in livestock and fish exports by the end of November, the Animal Resources Ministry said in a statement reported by state news agency SUNA.

This is an increase over the roughly $333 million earned in 2011, it said. The report said livestock represented about 20 percent of the country's gross domestic product, without providing further detail on exports.

Sudan had expected to collect some revenue from South Sudan's oil because the new nation is landlocked and was supposed to pay Khartoum to export crude through pipelines in the north.

But the two failed to agree on how to do this, and South Sudan shut down its entire 350,000 barrel per day output in January.

The two sides signed a number of deals in September that should have restarted oil output, but crude flows have yet to resume.

Last week Sudan laid out its budget for 2013, forecasting a deficit of about 10 billion Sudanese pounds - roughly $1.5 billion at recent black market rates.

Second Vice President al-Haj Adam Youssef told Reuters in an interview last week that the new budget did not include revenues from South Sudan's oil.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sudan-livestock-exports-reach-408-mln-end-nov-141931728--finance.html

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