Skip to content

Strategic Systems Intelligence · SSIP

Parallel market rate, SSP per USD

The rate at which physical US dollars change hands in the open Juba cash market, as surveyed by dealer associations and the Chamber of Commerce.

Unit: SSP per USD · Measurement: RATE · Scope: CITY · Comparability group: FX_SSP_USD_PARALLEL_CASH

What this is not

Almost every serious error in operational data is a category error rather than an arithmetic one. These are the things this indicator shares a unit with and must never be combined with.

  • The Bank of South Sudan official reference rate, which applies only to qualifying letters of credit and is a different regime, not a lagging version of this one.
  • A bank telegraphic-transfer rate, which SSIP does not hold.
  • A blended or effective rate. SSIP publishes no blend, because the blend weights are not known.

How current a reading has to be

Current within 7 days, usable within 30 days, measured against the 2026-09-23 build rather than against the time you read this page. A static deployment cannot re-age itself, so the build date is the honest anchor.

The parallel rate has moved by double digits within single months in this corpus. A reading older than a week describes a different market; past a month it is history.

Readings held (9)

This series has 5 breaks longer than its usable window (2024-03-31 to 2024-09-30, 183 days; 2024-09-30 to 2025-03-31, 182 days; 2025-03-31 to 2025-09-30, 183 days; 2025-09-30 to 2026-03-31, 182 days; 2026-03-31 to 2026-08-25, 147 days). Nothing is known about the indicator during those periods, nothing is interpolated across them, and no line is drawn through them.

  • 4,650 SSP per USD — observed 2026-09-14, 9 days before the 2026-09-23 build
    Source: BoSS Official Circular & Daily Surveyed Parallel Exchange Rate Dealers · Juba Currency Market (Custom & Konyo Konyo) (named only — no coordinate held) · Aging · ESTIMATED · evidence ev-00459
    As the source states it: “Parallel: SSP 4,650 / USD | Official: SSP 3,250 / USD”
  • 4,450 SSP per USD — observed 2026-08-26, 28 days before the 2026-09-23 build
    Source: Bank of South Sudan FX Auction Circular BSS/FXD/2026/08 + Juba Custom Market Survey · Juba, Central Equatoria (named only — no coordinate held) · Aging · ANNOUNCED · evidence ev-00433
    As the source states it: “4,450”
  • 4,620 SSP per USD — observed 2026-08-25, 29 days before the 2026-09-23 build
    Source: Juba FX Dealers Association Morning Spot Survey · Central Equatoria & Major State Capitals (named only — no coordinate held) · Aging · DISPUTED · evidence ev-00485
    As the source states it: “4,620 SSP / USD (Parallel Cash)”
    Another source makes an incompatible claim about this subject. Both positions are published and neither is preferred.
  • 4,620 SSP per USD — observed 2026-08-25, 29 days before the 2026-09-23 build
    Source: Juba FX Syndicate · Central Equatoria & National Trade Corridors (named only — no coordinate held) · Aging · ANNOUNCED · evidence ev-00407
  • 4,300 SSP per USD — observed 2026-03-31, 176 days before the 2026-09-23 build
    Source: Juba FX Syndicate · Central Equatoria & National Trade Corridors (named only — no coordinate held) · Stale · ANNOUNCED · evidence ev-00405
  • 3,980 SSP per USD — observed 2025-09-30, 358 days before the 2026-09-23 build
    Source: Juba FX Syndicate · Central Equatoria & National Trade Corridors (named only — no coordinate held) · Stale · ANNOUNCED · evidence ev-00403
  • 3,450 SSP per USD — observed 2025-03-31, 541 days before the 2026-09-23 build
    Source: Juba FX Syndicate · Central Equatoria & National Trade Corridors (named only — no coordinate held) · Stale · ANNOUNCED · evidence ev-00401
  • 2,850 SSP per USD — observed 2024-09-30, 723 days before the 2026-09-23 build
    Source: Juba FX Syndicate · Central Equatoria & National Trade Corridors (named only — no coordinate held) · Stale · ANNOUNCED · evidence ev-00399
  • 1,650 SSP per USD — observed 2024-03-31, 906 days before the 2026-09-23 build
    Source: BSS / Juba Chamber · Central Equatoria & National Trade Corridors (named only — no coordinate held) · Stale · ANNOUNCED · evidence ev-00397

What SSIP says about it

  • Parallel market rate, SSP per USD: 4,650 SSP per USD, recorded 2026-09-14 by BoSS Official Circular & Daily Surveyed Parallel Exchange Rate Dealers. Past this indicator's 7-day currency window (9 days old as of 2026-09-23); usable with its date shown.
    Rule: Take the most recent dated observation bound to this indicator and classify its age against the indicator's own freshness policy (7 days current, 30 days usable — The parallel rate has moved by double digits within single months in this corpus. A reading older than a week describes a different market; past a month it is history.).
    Does not establish: That the condition still holds today. This is the most recent reading SSIP holds, not a statement about 2026-09-23. The Bank of South Sudan official reference rate, which applies only to qualifying letters of credit and is a different regime, not a lagging version of this one.
  • On 2026-08-25 the parallel cash rate stood 33.9% above the official reference rate — 4,620 against 3,450 SSP per USD. These are two exchange-rate regimes with different eligibility, not two estimates of one rate, and SSIP publishes both rather than a blend.
    Rule: Where SSIP holds an official reference rate and a parallel cash rate carrying the same observation date, report the percentage distance between them. The two are never averaged, and no ratio is computed across different dates, because part of any such spread would be the passage of time rather than the divergence.
    Does not establish: Which rate any particular transaction settles at. Eligibility for the official rate is restricted to qualifying letter-of-credit allocations, and SSIP holds no data on the share of transactions clearing under each regime.
  • Parallel Exchange Rate vs Central Bank Official Peg: Bank of South Sudan Daily Gazette Benchmark records 3,450 SSP / USD (Official Peg), Juba FX Dealers Association Morning Spot Survey records 4,620 SSP / USD (Parallel Cash). The register attributes the divergence to: "Structural liquidity gap: Central Bank official rate applies only to qualified letters of credit for essential medicines and grain imports, while retail traders, transport operators, and construction contractors must procure cash dollars on the open market."
    Rule: Publish both positions from the contradiction register with their own sources and dates, and carry the register's stated root cause. SSIP does not choose between them and does not average them.
    Does not establish: Which figure is correct. The register records these as measuring different things on different bases; where that is so, both can be right and neither answers the other's question.
  • 10 of 13 jurisdictions carry no dated operational reading of any kind: Western Equatoria, Jonglei, Upper Nile, Lakes, Warrap, Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Western Bahr el Ghazal, Abyei Administrative Area, Greater Pibor Administrative Area, Ruweng Administrative Area. What SSIP holds for them is the undated county register and nothing else.
    Rule: Count jurisdictions whose only operational readings are undated register classifications. Undated register entries are excluded from the count of dated readings deliberately, because a map shaded by total readings would show national coverage that does not exist.
    Does not establish: Anything about conditions in those jurisdictions. The absence of readings is a statement about SSIP, not about the places.
  • The Parallel market rate, SSP per USD series has 5 breaks longer than its 30-day usable window; the largest runs 183 days from 2024-03-31 to 2024-09-30. Charts of this indicator break the line across those periods rather than drawing through them.
    Rule: Report consecutive published points separated by more than the indicator's usable window as a break in the series. Nothing is interpolated across a break and no line is drawn through one.
    Does not establish: What the indicator did during the break. Nothing is known about that period, and a straight line between two points is a drawing convention rather than a measurement.

What SSIP does not hold

  • Every reading is from Juba. SSIP holds no parallel rate for Wau, Malakal, Aweil or Bentiu, where the spread is likely to differ.
  • Readings are point surveys, not volume-weighted clearing rates, except where the source states otherwise.

How to read this

Every figure on this page carries an evidence state — Verified, Operational, Announced, Estimated, Inferred, Disputed, Simulated, Reference or Unavailable — and each state has a stated definition. SSIP does not present an estimate as an observation, and it does not record a missing value as zero.

Read the methodology · Open the evidence ledger · See declared gaps

Related

All operational indicators · Operating picture · Coverage · Recorded changes · Evidence ledger

Topic hubs

Cite, check and correct

Cite as: “Parallel market rate, SSP per USD · Operational indicator”. Strategic Systems Intelligence. https://ssintelligence.online/indicators/fx-parallel-ssp-usd. Last updated . Carry the evidence state with any figure you quote.

Methodology · Sources · Corrections — if a record here is wrong, the corrections log is where it is fixed in public.