(Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Photo: Mohammed Babiker/Landov)

On Tuesday, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir took another step to sever his nation’s economy from the newly independent South Sudan by announcing plans for a new currency.

"The package of the economic measures includes issuing a new currency in the coming days," Bashir said during a televised speech.

Sudan is trying to grapple with the fact that they lost about 75 percent of their oil reserves on Saturday when, after years of conflict, South Sudan officially became the world’s newest nation.

During Tuesday’s address, Bashir announced he’s bringing in economic austerity measures to make up for the loss. Without a reliance on oil they’ll have to diversify, investing more into agriculture, gold and more.

In addition, Bashir announced other changes to Sudan’s government involving freedom of speech.

“No one from today will be arrested for expressing his political views,” he said. Talks about a new constitution are also in the works he said, the BBC reports.

On the other side, South Sudan also announced they’d be launching their own currency, but it might be a little bit more complicated for them. The main problem is the up to 2 billion pounds of old Sudanese currency still being used in the nation’s economy, Reuters reports. They are due to start circulating their new currency next week, the nation’s finance minister announced Monday. It will take up to three months to replace the old Sudanese currency, according to another finance official Reuters reports.

And still, even though they have most of the oil, they currently depend on Sudan’s pipelines to get it in, meaning the two economies will be connected for a few more years to come, reports the news service.

Get more facts on South Sudan.