Food stuff at Kuajok's Livestock-Agriculture show - Credit | Obaj Okuj/Eye Radio | Nov. 18, 2021

The Central Bank governor has advised urban South Sudanese to start eating local foods as alternatives to the expensive bread.

Moses Makur Deng made the remarks at the weekend while explaining what caused the current depreciation of the pound against the US dollar.

According to Makur, the war in Ukraine has been a major shock for global commodities in the markets.

He did not explain the extent to which the invasion of Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin is affecting South Sudan’s economy.

But in a press statement, governor Makur said, the country is not directly dependent on imports of grains from Ukraine and Russia.

Amidst these developments, he said, the country continues to see rising prices of refined petroleum products and food items which are imported from the neighboring countries.

His statement added that further inflation is expected in the coming months.

Makur is now urging the citizens, particularly those accustomed to bread, to change their eating patterns and consume local produce.

“We are advising them [South Sudanese] to change their pattern of consumption because most South Sudanese don’t even know what wheat looks like,” Makur’s statement partially reads.

“You cannot jump to eat something you don’t have, when things become tough, even if you were eating bread or anything else, you can change the consumption pattern to what is available,

“One of the solutions for the public of South Sudan is for people to actually change their consumption pattern.”

The governor said, part of the commodity price hikes are because of imported inflation.

Last Wednesday, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the Ukraine conflict may trigger social and economic chaos around the world.

Guterres said this at the launch of a second report by the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance over the Ukraine conflict.

“For people around the world, the conflict, together with the other crises, is threatening to unleash “an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution, leaving social and economic chaos in its wake”,  Guterres said.