[1] Incidental government investment went mainly into ad hoc projects, such as the construction of cotton gins and oilseed-pressing mills, as adjuncts of the irrigation program.
[1] A Ten-Year Plan of Economic and Social Development for the fiscal years (FY) 1961–70 was drawn up for SDP565 million, at the time equivalent to more than US$1.6 billion.
[1] Investment was at a high rate in the first years, so that a number of major undertakings were completed by midplan, including the Khashm al-Qirbah and Manaqil irrigation projects and the Roseires Dam.
[1] After the end of the First Sudanese Civil War, in 1973 the government established the Interim Action Program, which extended the original plan period through FY 1976.
[1] The plan goals and projections also appeared optimistic because of the worsening domestic economic situation, marked by growing inflation.
[1] During the plan's second year, FY 1978, there was no economic growth, external debt pressures increased, and Sudan failed to meet its scheduled payments.
[1] By 1991 the value of the Sudanese pound against the U.S. dollar had sunk to less than 10 percent of its 1978 value, and the country's external debt had risen to US$13 billion, the interest on which could be paid only by raising new loans.
[1] Two reasons for the decline in production were the droughts and accompanying famine occurring in 1980–91, and the influx of more than 1 million refugees from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Chad, and Uganda.
[1] Sudan borrowed heavily for its development programs over the years; then it suffered severely as international interest rates increased.
[1] The program, which continued, sought to stabilize the macroeconomic environment, reduce the rate of inflation, strengthen the external accounts, increase growth through privatization and deregulation, reform the banking sector, liberalize trade, and revise investment and foreign-exchange controls.
[1] Inflation fell from triple digits to hover around 10 percent, the currency stabilized, foreign investment rose, and there were several years of economic growth.