Sudan’s oil woes

Aljazeera recently featured a story on Sudan’s oil woes.  Here are the highlights.

• Sudan began exporting oil in 1999 and it now accounts for 65% of the country’s national budget.
• Sudan’s economy grew at over 8% in 2007.  This year it will only be 4%.

In the nutshell “Sudan’s dissappearing fortunes, falling prices take a heavy toll on an economy that depends on its oil wells for its growth.”

Where have all these oil resources gone?  Agriculture is now at it’s worst.  Industry is in trouble.  Development projects have been financed through arrears and debt.

That is a great question.  Did it go towards genocide?

This is in stark contrast to the situation in 2007 when Sudan’s economy was ‘booming’ due to swelling oil revenues.  Here is an old report from Aljazeera.

I find it interesting that both these reports only vaguly allude to the ‘political troubles’ plaguing the country.