Bankers: Marib saves the Houthis from the new currency crisis
English - Monday 06 January 2020 الساعة 09:05 am
aden,newsyemen
Shortly after the Houthis started to confiscate the new banknotes, banks, exchange companies, and the commercial sector suffered from monetary problems, and the Houthi militia fell into a difficult network of crises, but bank experts confirm that the local authority’s decision to save the Houthis from their crisis and provide them with a market for the exchange of funds that they plundered.
The local authorities in Marib, which is subject to the Islah Party, "the branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen," and the authorities of Al-Bari port outlet, have taken measures to prevent the oil and gas company from selling gas and fuel to the Houthis except in the new currency.
A bank manager explained that the authorities ’procedures in Marib served the Houthis in the disbursement of the funds they had plundered, and addressed the liquidity crisis and the leakage of local currency from the old categories, from their areas of control to the areas of legitimate government, which protects the Houthi militia’s decision from collapse and its occurrence in a liquidity crisis.
The Houthis recently prevented people from using the newly printed currency, and asked them to exchange their currencies for a virtual currency, "the e-rial." This move created a liquidity crisis with old currency, and put the Houthi militia in a dilemma.
The banking expert, who asked not to be named, added that the gas companies and oil stations in the Houthi-controlled areas have bought oil and gas from Marib with billions of riyals, enabling the Houthi militia to spend the money they looted, replace them with traders in the old currency, and enhance liquidity in their areas with the old currency
He said: The authorities of Marib Governorate had to compel merchants to pay the value of the cooking gas shipments in the old currency, so that they would be withdrawn from the Houthi-controlled areas, and within a period of no less than three months the Houthi militia would be forced to use the newly printed banknotes.
According to official data, the Brotherhood’s organization controls the resources to produce 2,150 tons of gas per day, so that the annual revenue of the domestic gas resource exceeds more than 100 billion, and the Islah party controls the land port in Yemen currently, the port of deposit and its tax and customs revenues reach about 144 billion riyals annually.
