Yemen Shuffles Central Bank Leadership as Currency Crashes

Yemeni riyal hits an all-time low

Yemen’s President Hadi has shuffled up the leadership of his central bank on Monday, sacking the central bank governor and deputy in favor of new appointees.

This move was precipitated by the collapse of the Yemeni Riyal, which hit an all-time low earlier in the day. The central bank meant for a 530:1 ratio with the US dollar, but in practice it trades as low as 1,700:1.

Hadi’s bank has been criticized for its policies of printing currency to run the government off of, with some saying the collapse was inevitable. At the same time, the government itself has been deficit-spending through years of war, and that plainly isn’t sustainable.

The poorest nation in the region, Yemen’s currency was never exactly prized to begin with. Now, the nation has two central banks trying to manage a drawn out war. The Houthis’ bank is not printing new bills, but is insisting they will only accept pre-war notes, which is likely sustaining the value of the ones not recently printed at least a little.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.