On Tuesday, Yemeni Prime Minister Maeen Abdul-Malik asked the European Union to provide urgent support to save the local currency, which is witnessing a record decline.
This came during his meeting in the temporary capital, Aden (south), the Deputy Head of the European Union Mission in Yemen Marion Lallis, the French Ambassador Jean-Marie Safa, the German Ambassador Hubert Jaeger, the Dutch Ambassador Peter Derek Hof, and the Swedish envoy Peter Smenbe, according to the official Yemeni News Agency ( Sheba).
During the meeting, they discussed “Yemeni-European relations and ways to develop them, stressing the importance of European support for Yemen at this stage, especially in the economic and humanitarian aspects,” according to the agency.
Abdul Malik called on the European Union “to support the government’s efforts to deal with economic challenges, foremost of which is mobilizing efforts to provide urgent support to achieve stability in the national currency exchange rate, and to avoid its major repercussions on the conditions and living conditions of citizens.”
Abdul-Malik also called for “supporting the government’s measures aimed at saving the economic and humanitarian situation, confronting the catastrophic deterioration in services such as electricity, water, health services, and education, and starting the process of supporting reconstruction and development.”
This is the highest European delegation to visit Aden since the formation of the Yemeni government in December 2020.
During the past days, the Yemeni riyal witnessed a new record decline, as the price of one dollar in the governorates under the authority of the government reached nearly 1,400 riyals, for the first time in the country’s history.
Before the war in Yemen in 2015, the average price of the dollar was 215 riyals.
The decline in the price of the currency led to protests in several Yemeni cities and repeated popular demands for the need to address the Yemeni riyal crisis, amid warnings of the expansion of hunger and poverty.
