ADEN, June 05 (YPA) -The government loyal to the Saudi-led coalition has threatened to stop paying salaries to employees in areas under its control if oil exports continue to be halted in Yemen’s eastern Hadramout and Shabwa governorates.
According to three officials loyal to the coalition, the pro-coalition government headed by Maeen Abdul Malik is facing an unprecedented severe financial crisis as a result of the continued suspension of oil exports from those ports, since Sanaa forces stopped the looting of oil through the port of Al-Dhabba in Hadramout last October, Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported.
The newspaper quoted officials, confirming that “the Bank of Aden’s hard currency reserves are decreasing significantly” and that it may be unable to pay employees’ salaries and provide foreign currency to import basic foodstuffs and fuel, not to mention the ability to control the currency rate against the dollar.
The amount of deficit in the general budget for this year reached by the end of May more than 80%, the paper said.
The paper reported that the pro-coalition government is betting to overcome the crisis with the support provided by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the international support mobilized by the United States and Britain at international donor conferences.
It is noteworthy that the pro-coalition government is repeatedly losing the ability to control the stability of the local currency against the US dollar, which has led to an unprecedented rise in the prices of commodities and foodstuffs in the southern and eastern governorates exceeding the barrier of 300% for most basic commodities.
E.M