Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia has agreed to deposit $1 billion in Yemen’s central bank, which is situated in Aden. The move is intended to stimulate the war-torn nation’s economy.
Months after the internationally recognised government was deposed by Houthi rebels, who now rule Sanaa, the capital, and a sizable portion of the country’s north, Riyadh engaged militarily. After the Houthis launched a series of raids on facilities there late last year that hindered oil shipments, a crucial source of income, the internationally recognised government situated in the south saw its public finances deteriorate.
The Arab Monetary Fund, situated in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, struck a $1 billion agreement to help Yemen’s economic reform initiative in November. Due to a shortage of dollars, the administration in Aden increased the US dollar exchange rate used to determine customs charges on non-essential commodities by 50 percent last month, causing prices to reach record highs.
According to traders, the rial was trading at a rate of 1,225 to the US dollar. It has two competing central banks. To pay the deficit, the government has turned to money creation, but in Houthi-held areas, where new notes are prohibited, the exchange rate is closer to 600 rials to the dollar.
Since the Houthi rebels, who are tied to Iran, overthrew President Mr. Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s administration in 2014, Yemen, the most impoverished nation on the Arabian Peninsula, has been in ruins. Since then, the conflict between the Houthis and a pro-government force supported by a Saudi-led military coalition has claimed thousands of lives, left 80 percent of the population dependent on aid and left millions of people hungry.