ADEN, Feb 22 (NNN-SABA) – Saudi Arabia will deposit one billion U.S. dollars, in Yemen’s central bank, based in the southern port city of Aden, to help the war-ravaged Arab country weather cash and financial hardships, a government official said, yesterday.
“During the upcoming hours, officials of Yemen’s internationally-recognised government, will attend a signing ceremony in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, to receive a one-billion-U.S. dollar- deposit from the kingdom,” the local government source said, on condition of anonymity.
“Governor of the Aden-based Central Bank of Yemen, Ahmed Ghalib Al-Mabaqi, along with other Yemeni financial officials, already headed to Riyadh to sign the deposit agreement with Saudi Arabia’s officials,” he added.
The move aims “to help the government in confronting the sharp collapse of the national currency, and reduce the suffering of the Yemeni people, as a result of the skyrocketing prices of basic commodities,” the source noted.
In Aden, the Yemeni riyal is now traded in the black market at 1,225 for one dollar, the lowest exchange rate since the beginning of the military conflict between the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels.– NNN-SABA
