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Yemeni Government: ‘We have Fulfilled the Central Bank’s Obligations despite Scarcity in Resources’ | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Yemen’s Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr attends the High-level Pledging Event for the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland April 25, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse


Riyadh, Aden- Yemeni Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr said that the legitimate government has been paying the debts for the Central Bank and the other foreign debts, which is putting additional burden on it in light of the scarce and limited resources.

During his meeting with the British Ambassador to Yemen, Simon Shercliff, Wednesday in Riyadh, Bin Daghr said that the government has been able to fulfill its local and foreign commitments on its own, has improved the level of services, has payed the salaries for all the public sector employees in the liberated governorates.

He also confirmed that the legitimate government has sent the salaries to some institutions in the governorates that are under Houthi militia’s control and has paid the fees and other obligations for the scholarship students studying abroad.

In a statement issued by Saba news agency, Bin Daghr explained that the militias “have wasted the cash reserve of $5.2 billion and controlled the revenues, which have amounted to YR581 billion in 2016, in favor of what it called the war effort without spending a single riyal on development and salaries, doubling the suffering of the citizens.”

For its part, the Yemeni central bank said that the recent correction it has made “will contribute to attracting grants and other external foreign exchange resources, especially grant programs that will be launched by the World Bank and other donors soon, such as the Social Welfare Fund Cash Transfer Program, the Commodity Merchandise Support Portfolio, humanitarian relief efforts and some projects in the field of education and public health services.”

This decision paves the way for launching a reconstruction program in Yemen, supported by the two major donors, mainly Saudi Arabia.

In an explanatory statement, the bank said that when it realized in March 2016 that the reserves were about to be depleted, a decision was made to limit such intervention by only supporting the exchange rate of two commodities – wheat and rice – and abandoning the rest of the subsidies.