Speaking during the swearing-in ceremony of the new finance minister in Juba on Tuesday, President Kiir said South Sudan has become a ‘laughing stock’ worldwide because of the ongoing crisis while urging the new finance minister to work hard to address some of the challenges.

There is no immediate solution will save South Sudan from the current economic woes caused on the five-year-old civil war, President Salva Kiir said.

Kiir said the current economic crisis is one of the biggest challenges being faced by his government and no immediate or short-term solution to the crisis is in sight.

“We have lost the value of our currency, and there is nothing we can do soon to regain our currency’s value unless we produce,” Kiir said.

The South Sudanese leader pointed out that power struggle led the newest nation into a full-blown catastrophe and left his government broke.

“The forceful taking of power has brought us now to this stage where we have no money in our bank,” he said.

Latest figures from the World Bank show that inflation in South Sudan has consistently been in triple digits over the last two years, with its Gross Domestic Product experiencing an annual growth rate of -13.1 percent.