Population below poverty line 50.6% Export goods crude oil GDP per capita 1,044.99 USD (2013) GNI per capita 1,860 PPP dollars (2013) | Main industries petroleum production Currency South Sudanese pound Gross domestic product 11.8 billion USD (2013) | |
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Inflation (CPI) 46.2% – from July 2010 to July 2011 Gross national income 20.96 billion PPP dollars (2013) GDP growth rate 13.1% annual change (2013) | ||
The economy of South Sudan is one of the world's weakest and most underdeveloped, with South Sudan having little existing infrastructure and the highest maternal mortality and female illiteracy rates in the world as of 2011.
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Map of South Sudan
South Sudan is one of the poorest countries in the world. Most villages in the country have no electricity or running water, and the country's overall infrastructure is lacking, with few paved roads.
Infrastructure
South Sudan's economy is one of the world's weakest and most underdeveloped. Most villages in the country have no electricity or running water, and its overall infrastructure is lacking, with few paved roads. In 2012, The World Bank approved a four-year, $38 million USD investment loan to South Sudan's Ministry of Roads and Bridges to build rural and inter-urban roads and highways.
Access to clean water in South Sudan is a major challenge for many people.
The nation has some telecommunications service through operators like MTN Group (formerly known as Investcom), but currently lacks the infrastructure to offer high speed Internet connections. In March 2015, South Sudan's minister for telecommunications and postal services revealed plans for the government to lay 1,600 kilometers of fiber-optic cable across the country within two years. The government plans to connect this network with undersea cables via existing infrastructure in Uganda and Tanzania.
Currency
Until 1992, the Sudanese Pound has replaced the dinar as Sudan's currency. Until a referendum, South Sudan will become to first to use the new currency and will be nicknamed 'the Sudani'. Inaugural Finance Minister David Deng Athorbie announced the creation of the South Sudanese pound to go into effect a week after independence.
East African Community possible membership
The presidents of Kenya and Rwanda invited the Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan to apply for membership upon the independence of South Sudan in 2011, and South Sudan was reportedly an applicant country as of mid-July 2011. As of early-October, South Sudan is said to officially become a member in the future.
Analysts suggested that South Sudan's early efforts to integrate infrastructure, including rail links and oil pipelines, with systems in Kenya and Uganda indicated intention on the part of Juba to pivot away from dependence on Sudan and toward East Africa. Reuters considers South Sudan the likeliest candidate for EAC expansion in the short term, and an article in Tanzanian daily The Citizen that reported East African Legislative Assembly Speaker Abdirahin Haithar Abdi said South Sudan was "free to join the EAC" asserted that analysts believe the country will soon become a full member of the regional body.
On 17 September, the Daily Nation quoted a South Sudanese MP as saying that while his government was eager to join the EAC, it would likely delay its membership over concerns that its economy was not sufficiently developed to compete with EAC member states and could become a "dumping ground" for Kenyan, Tanzanian, and Ugandan imports. This was contradicted by President Salva Kiir, who announced South Sudan had officially embarked on the application process one month later.