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Yemen’s economy on verge of collapse, warns minister

December 16, 2021 at 8:58 am

Yemeni refugees are seen as they are living under miserable conditions at makeshift tents during cold weather in Taiz, Yemen on 20 November 2021. [Abdulnasser Alseddik – Anadolu Agency]

Yemen’s economy is facing formidable challenges and difficulties which leave it “on the edge of collapse,” the finance minister warned yesterday.

Salim Bin Bureik’s remarks came during a workshop on building the capacities of the finance ministry held in the Saudi capital Riyadh. The workshop was organised in coordination with the Saudi Program for Development and Reconstruction of Yemen (SPDRY).

“The decline in the value of the national currency against foreign currencies is one of the biggest challenges,” Bureik pointed out, adding that this had led to a “significant increase in the country’s inflation.”

The official called for an “urgent assistance by Saudi Arabia and the SPDRY,” reiterating that his country was in “dire need of Saudi support more than ever before to bail out the national economy.”

Impoverished Yemen has long been mired in a bloody war between the Houthis militants and the government forces. The conflict escalated when a Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015 to support the government troops. The war has claimed the lives of more than 233,000 Yemenis and left some 30 million dependent on aid, according to the United Nations.

READ: Who is fighting in Yemen’s war?