Yemeni Planning Min: Civil War Made  National Currency Lose 180 % of Value

The Minister of Planning and International Cooperation in Yemen, Waed Bazeb, revealed that the civil war that has broken out in the country for seven years,  caused an unprecedented contraction of the Yemeni economy and a decline of the national currency by nearly 200%.

This came in Bazeb's statements during a video conference with the Regional Director for Egypt, Yemen, and Djibouti at the World Bank Marina Weiss, with the participation of the Executive Director of the World Bank Group, Mirza Hassan, according to the Yemeni news agency "Saba" broadcasting from Riyadh, the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The minister said that the  Yemeni economy has been suffering from an unprecedented downturn since the Houthi rebels carried out their coup against constitutional legitimacy and the state in 2014.

He revealed that Yemen during the internal conflict lost more than $90 billion, according to preliminary estimates, as a direct loss in the General  Domestic Product (GDP), in addition to losses resulting from the destruction of large parts of the infrastructure across the country because of war.

Bazeb went on to say that the value of the national currency (the Yemeni Rial)  fell against foreign currencies by about 180 %.

This freefall was accompanied by a rise in prices, a deterioration in the standard of living, and a decrease in the average per capita income, which lost about 60 % of its value.

He stated that the challenges and crises facing the Yemeni economy and their repercussions; the recurring oil derivatives crisis, had the greatest impact in weakening the various service sectors, especially the electricity, health sector, the food and humanitarian security crisis, which left about 60% of the population vulnerable to food insecurity.

The repercussions of the conflict extend to cause malnutrition and weakness of productivity, in addition to the fallouts from the coronavirus pandemic, which has plunged the economy into a deep recession.

The Yemeni Minister of Planning called on the  World Bank to continue to contribute to the provision of vaccines to overcome the catastrophic health effects of the outbreak of the (COVID-19) pandemic, in a manner that enhances the role of the health sector for rapid response.