1 Pound – South Sudan

In 2015, South Sudan's currency, the South Sudanese Pound (SSP), was in a state of severe crisis, fundamentally driven by the civil war that erupted in late 2013. The conflict devastated the oil-dependent economy, slashing production—the source of 98% of government revenue—and causing massive inflation. The government, facing a catastrophic budget shortfall, resorted to printing money to finance its military expenditures and cover the deficit, a process that drastically increased the money supply without economic growth to support it. This led to a rapid devaluation of the SSP on the parallel market, where the exchange rate diverged wildly from the official, overvalued rate set by the Bank of South Sudan.

The currency situation created a dual economic reality that crippled everyday life. While the official exchange rate was pegged at around 3 SSP to the US dollar, the black-market rate soared to approximately 18 SSP per dollar by mid-2015, creating a huge arbitrage opportunity for the elite with access to official dollars. This disparity caused severe shortages of imported goods, including essential food and medicine, as formal trade became unsustainable. Hyperinflation took hold, with annual rates exceeding 100%, eroding savings and wages and pushing an already vulnerable population deeper into poverty and food insecurity.

International pressure, particularly from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), mounted on the government to unify the exchange rates and cease deficit financing through money printing. However, the government's ability to implement reforms was severely constrained by the war, which remained the overriding priority for spending. Consequently, the currency crisis of 2015 was not merely a monetary policy failure but a direct symptom of the political and military conflict, trapping the nation in a vicious cycle where war destroyed the economy, and the economic collapse further fueled the conflict.