According to a report of the Central Bank of Yemen (CBY), Yemen reserves of foreign currency recorded $ 5.9 billion until end of May of this year at decrease of $ 1.4 billion compared to May of last year.
The report released earlier this week and published in governmental media showed increase in the total capital of the bank at YR 233 billion to be 1.8 trillion in end of May of 2010 against 1.6 trillion in May of last year.
Yemen needs a large reserve of foreign currency in order to allow the government to control exchange, Yemeni economists said; adding that the greater a country's foreign reserves, the better position it is in to defend itself from speculative attacks on the domestic currency.
They affirmed that Yemen is once again at war but said it is not military war like the war which had taken place in the summer of 1994."It is a kind of war in which nobody hears the roar of artillery or humming of airplanes. It is the war of economic "they said.
The central bank has repeatedly pumped dollars into the exchange market, selling a total of $927 million to support the rial this year. The rail, Yemen's currency, has fallen about 16 percent from a level of 208 versus the dollar in mid-January.