On Monday, Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi changed the central bank governor and deputy governor despite the country’s currency’s historic depreciation.
According to Yemen’s national news agency, Ahmed bin Ahmed Ghaleb Al-Maabqi has been named central bank governor, with Muhammad Omar Banaja as his deputy, according to a presidential decree.
War-torn According to dealers and exchange offices, Yemen’s riyal currency has suffered a dramatic decline in value, reaching an all-time low of 1,700 to the US dollar on the black market on Monday. The official rate of 530 riyals to the dollar is maintained by the central bank.
Yemen is divided between an internationally recognised government in the south, which is backed by a Saudi-led military coalition, and the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in the north, which controls the majority of the country. Each side has a central bank with policies that are diametrically opposed.
To fund the government’s deficit and pay public sector wages, especially those of security and military services, the central bank in Aden, which has access to foreign financial markets, has increasingly turned to issuing fresh currency notes.
In the Houthi-controlled north, where only tattered old riyal notes are allowed, this has fueled inflation and sparked condemnation.
