Washington/Aden (South24 Center)

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Today (Tuesday, April 22), the Yemeni Internationally-Recognized Government announced that it has participated in the ongoing negotiations for six months with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington to receive a financial loan. This comes within the framework of the ‘Article IV Consultations’ which usually precede financial support agreements with member states.

Yemeni Minister of Finance Salem Bin Brik told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that a high-ranking governmental delegation is currently participating in five sessions with officials from the IMF and World Bank in Washington as part of the Spring Meetings to discuss economic policies and proposed reforms in Yemen. He added that the features of the IMF support plan will be clear in the coming months after completion of the negotiations. 

The minister pointed out that the government has submitted a five-year reform vision, which consists of financial and administrative reforms that aim to tackle the economic challenges, including the decline in the value of the local currency. He expects that the technical aspect of the negotiations will be over in 3-6 months in preparation for determining the loan amount and the country's financing needs.

Yemen’s current external debt is estimated at about $6 billion, according to an initial assessment by IMF experts after the government moved to the interim capital city, Aden.

On the sidelines of the same meetings, Yemeni Central Bank Governor, Ahmed Ghaleb, met the IMF’s Legal Administration team to discuss the aspects of the technical support, including updating of legislations and enhancing the ability to counter money laundering and terrorism financing.

In a statement, the Central Bank said the IMF has expressed its readiness to provide technical support and that they agreed on organizing an expanded workshop with representatives from the Central Bank, the Financial Information Unit, and the National Committee for Countering Money Laundering.

These moves come amid a big economic crisis in Yemen, where the exchange rate of the US dollar in South Yemen’s markets today reached 2,506 rials for sale and 2,480 for purchase -- the highest level since the Yemeni rial began trading after the unity in 1990.