The economy of Sudan is largely based on agriculture and oil exports, with additional revenue coming from mining and manufacturing.

Sudan had $30.873 billion by gross domestic product as of 2019, and has been working with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to implement macroeconomic reforms, including a managed float of the exchange rate.

During the late 1970s and to 1980s, the IMF, World Bank, and key donors worked closely to promote reforms to counter the effect of inefficient economic policies and practices.

By 1984, a combination of factors, including drought, inflation, and confused application of Islamic law, reduced donor disbursements and capital flight led to a serious foreign-exchange crisis and increased shortages of imported inputs and commodities.

[18] Livestock production has vast potential, and many animals, particularly cows, sheep, and camels, are exported to Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries.

A major problem which has been growing for decades is the continual loss of open lands previously used for animal grazing to mechanized drylands and irrigated farming.

Major agricultural projects such as the Gezera Scheme in Gezira state are underway in order to make Sudan food self-sufficient.

[21] Cotton is the principal export crop and an integral part of the country's economy and Sudan is the world's third largest producer of sesame after India and China.

In recent years, the Giad Industrial Complex in Al Jazirah state introduced the assembly of small autos and trucks, and some heavy military equipment such as armored personnel carriers and the “Bashir” and "Zubair" main battle tanks as well as handguns, light and heavy machine guns and howitzers and, recently, drone production.

Significant finds were made in the Upper Nile region and commercial quantities of oil began to be exported in October 2000, reducing Sudan's outflow of foreign exchange for imported petroleum products.

Oil from the Melud Basin is known as "Dar Blend" and is refined at the Port Sudan Refinery, which has a capacity of 21,700 barrels per day (3,450 m3/d).

[24] The mining industry contributed little to GDP until the discovery of commercially exploitable quantities of petroleum in the late 1970s offered hope that the sector would play an increased role in the economy in the future.

[27] Nonhydrocarbon minerals of actual or potential commercial value include gold, chrome, copper, iron ore, manganese, asbestos, gypsum, mica, limestone, marble, uranium, silver, lead, talc, tungsten, zinc, and diamonds.

[27] The size of Sudan's labor force is difficult to determine because of the various definitions of participation in economic activity and the absence of accurate data from official sources.

[28] In rural areas, large numbers of women and girls engage in traditional productive occupations, but many probably are not included in calculations of the active workforce.

[28] In the early 1990s, the employment scene was exacerbated by the 1991 Persian Gulf War, which resulted in the return home of thousands of Sudanese workers who had been based in Kuwait and Iraq, leaving many of their possessions behind.

[28] Many remained in these areas once the drought had eased, living in shantytowns and contributing to unemployment, underemployment, or employment in the informal sector in the cities.

[28] In 2009 the government estimated unemployment at about 20 percent, perhaps not an accurate figure, because a large proportion of Sudanese engaged in small-scale and subsistence agriculture.

[28] In the 1955–56 census, almost 86 percent of those then considered as part of the workforce were involved in agriculture, livestock raising, forestry, fisheries, or hunting.

[28] In November 2001, the government announced the establishment of special civilian tribunals in the border regions separating the South and the North of the country to prosecute persons involved in the abduction, transport, holding, and selling or exchanging of women and children from war zones.

[28] Even so, as late as 2010, the Committee surmised that possibly 10,000 or more abductees from groups such as the Misiriyyah and Rizayqat as well as South Sudanese were engaged in some form of forced labor in the border regions.

Various projects are proposed to expand hydro-power, thermal generation, and other sources of energy, but so far the government has had difficulty arranging sufficient financing.

[30] A consequence of the embargo is that U.S. corporations cannot invest in the Sudan oil industry, so companies in China, Malaysia and India are the major investors.