Yemen signs agreement with Arab Monetary Fund to restructure its debts

The Yemeni government has signed an agreement with the Arab Monetary Fund to restructure Yemen's debts to the fund, including the repayment of some loans and installments, in a move aimed at improving the government's financial situation and supporting development projects and economic reforms.

The agreement was signed by Finance Minister Salem bin Braik and Director General and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arab Monetary Fund Dr. Fahad Al-Turki, in the city of Al-Ula in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in the presence of Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan, according to the Yemeni News Agency "Saba".

According to the agency, the signing of the agreement, which allows Yemen to benefit from the resources of the Arab Monetary Fund, came on the sidelines of the Al-Ula Conference for Emerging Market Economies, which began its work today and will continue for two days, in the Saudi city of Al-Ula, in coordination between the Saudi Ministry of Finance and the International Monetary Fund.

Following the signing, Bin Braik discussed with Al-Turki the latest developments in the economic and financial situation, and the level of implementation of the comprehensive reform program in the economic, financial and monetary fields in Yemen in order to achieve stability and improvement of the national economy and local currency.

Minister Bin Braik also addressed the major challenges facing the country’s public finances, and the need to continue the Arab Monetary Fund’s support for the comprehensive reform process and combating corruption with the aim of achieving stability and improvement of the national economy, and the positive impact of this on improving basic services provided to citizens.

The Minister of Finance praised the generous and continuous support from the brothers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Yemen and the Yemenis in various fields and sectors of life, especially the economic, service and humanitarian sectors.

For his part, Dr. Al-Turki reiterated his emphasis on the continued support of the Arab Monetary Fund to continue implementing the comprehensive reform process and combating corruption, with the aim of improving the general conditions and achieving comprehensive and sustainable development in Yemen.

The Yemeni government signed a $1 billion agreement with the Fund in late 2022 to support efforts to achieve economic stability until 2025.

Recent official estimates indicate that Yemen's debt bill amounts to about $10 billion, with interest and installments not being paid for these debts over the past years following the war that broke out in 2015.

Yemen's external debt amounted to $7.191 billion at the end of January 2015, before the outbreak of the war.

In a statement to Reuters on Sunday, an official in the Ministry of Finance in Aden said that Yemen is striving with the International Monetary Fund and other funds to reschedule the government’s debts and the possibility of exempting it from interest on overdue debts and obtaining additional financing, taking into account the circumstances and challenges resulting from the halt in oil exports.

The Yemeni government says that it has lost more than six billion dollars of its own resources over the course of two and a half years, as a result of the disruption of oil and gas exports due to repeated Houthi attacks on oil ports and tankers, in addition to targeting international shipping lines in the Red Sea.

Source: Agencies