Sudan has proposed to shut the gap between official and black market exchange rates, it was reported on Thursday.

Africa’s biggest country said it would do this through higher earnings from resources like gold and oil.

Al-Haj Adam Youssef, the vice president of Sudan, said they would not devalue the pound again.

Sudan has been in economic crisis since South Sudan broke away last year, taking with it three-quarters of the once unified nation’s oil output.

This had been Sudan’s main source of revenues and the dollars it needed to pay for imports.

Inflation hit 45 percent in October. This week Sudan’s pound fell to a historic low of 6.5 pounds against the dollar on the black market as hopes faded that Sudan would soon collect revenues from South Sudanese oil exports.

Youssef said authorities were trying to get the rate down to about 4.5 pounds to the dollar, close to the official rate of around 4.4 pounds.