Sudanese Finance Minister Mohammed Osman al-Rikabi said on Tuesday that banks across the world are still wary of working with Khartoum despite the US ending a trade embargo. The United States ditched its 20-year trade embargo against Khartoum in October, citing improvement made by Sudan in its human rights record, but still includes it on a blacklist of "state sponsors of terrorism".

"We did not benefit from the lifting of the embargo. World banks are still reticent about doing business with Sudanese banks," Rikabi told reporters. Under the terms of the US embargo Sudanese banks could not receive money transfers from abroad. Rikabi's comments come after parliament on Sunday approved an annual budget, aimed at reducing inflation from 34 percent to 19.5 percent and tackling a devalued Sudanese pound.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2018