Economic Warnings: Yemen Just Days Away from a New Currency Collapse

NYN| Reports and analyses 

Recent economic indicators suggest that the rapidly deteriorating exchange rate of the Yemeni currency in areas controlled by the internationally recognized government is no longer a passing crisis. Instead, it reflects a deep-rooted economic failure, for which the Saudi-Emirati coalition and its affiliates in Aden are being held directly responsible.

More than a decade after the coalition announced what it called a “rescue operation for the Yemeni people” in March 2015, the Yemeni rial at that time was trading at 220 rials to the US dollar and 57 rials to the Saudi riyal.

Today, the dollar has surpassed the 2,800 rial mark, and the Saudi riyal has reached 730 rials — the worst collapse in the country’s history. Experts warn that the dollar could soon break the 3,000 rial threshold, and the Saudi riyal may exceed 1,000 rials in the coming weeks.

Economists argue that this decline is not solely the inevitable result of war but rather the outcome of “deliberate policies” aimed at crippling Yemen’s economy and pushing its citizens toward poverty, hunger, and forced displacement. They stress that the coalition’s unstated goal is to empty Yemen of its youth and destroy its economic and social foundations.

Meanwhile, social media platforms have erupted with a wave of criticism and accusations directed at the internationally recognized government and the Presidential Leadership Council.

Activists wrote: “The authorities that failed for ten years to stabilize the currency, provide water and electricity, and pay salaries will not defeat Sanaa — not even in a hundred years.”

In the same context, unprecedented calls are rising for a popular uprising in the southern and eastern governorates. Citizens are holding the coalition and the Presidential Leadership Council responsible for the worsening economic collapse, lack of services, rising prices, and the deterioration of education and healthcare. Salaries have stopped, and when paid, are no longer enough to purchase even a single sack of flour.

Observers fear that the regions under the control of the internationally recognized government may be on the brink of a major social explosion, amid growing public anger and the collapse of slogans like “liberation” and “legitimacy” in the face of an increasingly grim economic and humanitarian reality.