AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Approaching the effects of the Saudi war on Yemen requires a vision that clarifies the whole picture. 43,397 civilians were killed and wounded in more than 2000 days, and 9526 installations were destroyed in the country, which has suffered for decades from underdevelopment. Only one can call for an end to the war, but the losses should be counted in a way that notes a clear truth: Yemen’s economy is devastated and the population is literally facing hunger.
The figures indicate that 28 million Yemenis - meaning the vast majority of the population - lack the basic necessities of life, such as water, electricity, health and education, and 24 million citizens need humanitarian aid, of whom 12 million are in dire need of such aid.
This need is not limited to adults, but includes the most vulnerable social groups, namely children. After the countries of Yemen’s neighboring countries made a decision to “starve” the Yemenis, in the words of the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock, the number of children suffering from acute malnutrition increased to 2.1 million Child.
The nearly 6-year-old war has produced profound humanitarian and social crises, has destroyed the economic cycle, displaced working groups, cut supply chains, and dispersed the center of government until Yemen lost its ability to fix a single exchange rate.
As for the Corona epidemic, it eliminated the hopes placed on external remittances, after the remittances of Yemenis working abroad decreased between 50 and 70% since the beginning of the epidemic, according to the United Nations.
The decline in global oil prices also contributed to the decrease in the value of Yemen’s oil exports, which increased the burden on the treasury and pushed the authorities to resort to financing the budget deficit from inflationary sources.
As a result of these and other factors, the local economic shrinkage and the deterioration of the national currency exchange rate increased by more than 186%, while Yemen's economic output lost $ 89 billion in 2019, a number that will continue to rise to $ 181 billion, according to a previous report issued by the United Nations Development Program.
Actually, per capita GDP has declined by about two thirds, and the middle class, especially the segment of employees dependent on its government salary as a main source of income, has been eroded, while more than 80% of the population has become poor.
But in return for this catastrophe that afflicted the great majority, a new wealthy class was formed, taking advantage of the weak state control, the multiplicity of governments, currency speculation and the import of food commodities, thus creating an economy parallel to the government economy.
As Yemen is heading to the worst famine the world has witnessed in decades, according to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the talk about the country's future becomes dependent on a crucial point: the end of the war - not humanitarian aid - is the necessary beginning to rebuild the country's shattered economy.
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source : al-Masirah
Wednesday
27 January 2021
9:40:48 AM
1109676
Due to US-Saudi aggression; years of war devastated economy of Yemen
Approaching the effects of the Saudi war on Yemen requires a vision that clarifies the whole picture. 43,397 civilians were killed and wounded in more than 2000 days, and 9526 installations were destroyed in the country, which has suffered for decades from underdevelopment....