ADEN, Yemen, July 11 (Xinhua) -- The Yemeni national currency on Sunday slipped to an unprecedented low in the country's southern port city of Aden and other major cities controlled by the internationally-recognized government.
For the first time in the country's history, the collapse of the national currency slipped to a new low of 1,000 Yemeni riyals per one U.S. dollar in Aden and other provinces controlled by the government backed by Saudi Arabia, according to bankers.
"We are selling one U.S. dollar with 1,000-1,007 Yemeni riyals here in the city of Aden," a banker named Emad Mustafa told Xinhua.
The Yemeni riyal recorded a similar unprecedented decline against all other foreign currencies.
Mustafa indicated that a number of banks in the city of Aden suspended the process of buying and selling foreign currencies temporarily.
Spokesman for the Aden Money Exchange Association, Subhi Bagfar, told Xinhua that "the current decline of the national currency comes as a result of the insufficient availability of foreign currency and the insane increase in demand for it."
He said that "they are studying to halt all financial services as a protest to force the government to find urgent solutions for the currency crisis."
In the street markets in Aden, where the government is officially based, one U.S. dollar was traded for 790 riyals earlier this year, up from 215 riyals compared with the rate before the war's eruption in 2015.
The sharp decline in the Yemeni currency's value started to severely affect the people who are already coping with the deteriorated situation caused by the years-long war.
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) in Yemen warned in December 2020 that the riyal had lost 250 percent of its value since the start of the war in 2015, which has led to an increase in food prices by 140 percent.
In 2017, the Yemeni government floated the national currency, a move that economic observers and analysts said was not well-studied a year after the relocation of the Central Bank to Aden.
The Yemeni economy is continuing to suffer after all exports were halted following a blockade on the country, which was part of a Saudi-led military intervention in March 2015. The blockade has also restricted imports largely.
All investments, including oil and gas projects, whose revenues used to contribute more than 70 percent of the state budget, were shut down.
Flow of foreign cash has stopped almost completely and corruption within the government institutions is among problems deepening economic misery. Enditem
