Al-Houthi militia plunders citizens' money in Sana'a
English - Thursday 19 December 2019 الساعة 02:32 pm
aden,newsyemen
On Wednesday, al-Houthi militia issued a decree to confiscate citizens' money from the new edition, issued by the Central Bank of Yemen in 2017-2019, under the pretext of protecting the economy, which was the cause of its fragmentation, and raising food prices fourfold.
In their decision by the Central Bank of Sanaa under their control, the Houthis gave citizens 30 days to hand over their national currency funds to compensate them with the electronic rial, which they have failed to implement in recent years, not as much as their money, but less than ""," he said. The approved ceiling" in accordance with the text of the resolution.
Al-Houthi militia considered the currency of the new edition illegal, and argued to protect the economy and the rial rate, but economists agree that the legal irregularities exercised by the Central Bank of Sana'a and the Houthi militia are the main reason for the collapse of the rial exchange rate against foreign currencies from 2015 to today.
The Central Bank of Yemen in Sana'a liquidated foreign reserves into real and loaned the Houthi militia through overdrafts and the central bank's foreign and gold reserves fell from more than 1 trillion to 75 billion riyals.
The information, obtained by New Zealand, confirms the balance in 2014 and 200 billion riyals, in 2015 it was estimated at 450 billion riyals, in 2016 at 122 billion riyals, and in 2017 it reached 75 billion riyals.
The houthi militia's short-term withdrawal swelled from 761 billion riyals in 2014 to 1.524 billion riyals in 2015, and in 2016 it reached 2 trillion and 225 billion riyals, reaching 2 trillion and 650 billion riyals in 2017.
In the same context, economists confirm to "Newsmen", that the measures taken by the Central Bank and the Houthi militia in Sana'a are contrary to article 32 of the Law of the Central Bank of Yemen No. 14 of 2000, which set the ceiling of overdraft supplication sought in the range of only 500 billion riyals, as well as a violation of the related articles The foreign reserves of the central bank and currency printing materials.
The local currency has more than halved in the past five years, falling from 215 riyals against the US dollar before the Houthi militia's coup against the state, to about 590-610 as of October 2019, down from a peak of 900 riyals in September 2018.
Although the military war has subsided since the Stockholm Agreement in December 2018, the national economy, which is largely dependent on imports, has become a battleground between the Houthis and the legitimate government, who are competing to attract and control the money they can use to finance imports.
In its latest update on December 12, the Swiss Capacity Assessment Project attributed the decline in the value of the Yemeni riyal to the economic war between the legitimate government and the Houthis, to control the hard currency, the main driver of price fluctuations, expecting prices to rise in the future if they do not The economic war between the two sides is over.
Observers believe that the Houthis used the new edition of the local currency as a pretext to blackmail traders, banks, exchange companies and money transfer networks, and excluded their compensation in their decision, and now arrived to plunder citizens, and compensate them with electronic riyals, which already do not exist.
