(Image Source: Business Recorder)

BY: JIAXI LU

ANCHOR: AUSTIN KIM

New currencies for both Sudan and South Sudan. Since the countries split earlier this month, they’ve both adopted their own unique money. But the change could cause trouble for the world’s newest country. BBC reports...

“A new country, a new currency. South Sudan only became a country on July 9, but is already issuing the South Sudan pound. … The new government had hoped to sell the old Sudan pounds back to Sudan, but Khartoum has rejected that -- announcing its own plans to issue a new currency." 

Before the split, South Sudan and Sudan shared the Sudanese pound. The secretary-general of the South’s ruling party told Bloomberg -- Sudan’s new currency will cost the newly-independent South the equivalent of  $700 million U.S.

“The implication of the introduction of a new currency in the north is that the Sudanese pound is being made an illegal tender, with the Bank of Sudan not assuming responsibility for this currency which they have issued." 

The secretary-general went on to accuse the Sudanese of launching an “economic war.”

But officials in the north countered, saying -- leaving that much Sudanese money in the South might have destabilizes their own economy.

A writer for the Sudan Tribune says the economic risks to both countries might finally lead to serious negotiations.

“Fears of economic conflict have been partly allayed by the assurance of [the] governor of the [central] bank ... that they are ‘ready to negotiate with the Government of South Sudan’ over the matter. … With both nations [in] possession of potentially valueless cash they are keen to speed the transitional process." 

The main issue: South Sudan has most of the oil, Sudan has the pipeline, and there’s no agreement on how to split the earnings. Analysts say both economies could face real difficulties if they don’t cooperate.