Foreign currency injections over the last two months from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been effective in stabilizing the exchange rate, financing imports of essential goods and paying pensions and civil servant salaries, he said.
The Yemeni rial is currently trading at just over 500 to the U.S. dollar, which represents a marked appreciation compared to a few weeks ago. But a dollar still costs more than twice as many rials as before the current conflict, said Lowcock.
Research indicates that the exchange rate needs to come down to about 440 to the dollar before it will have a wider impact on people's ability to afford food and other essential goods, he said.
To achieve this, and to finance imports, pay salaries and pensions, and meet minimum costs reliably, the Yemeni government is going to need billions of dollars in external support for its budget in 2019, he said.
Lowcock emphasized that the primary cause of the humanitarian crisis is the ongoing conflict. It is no coincidence that two-thirds of the people most at risk of starvation live in Hajjah, Hudaydah, Saada and Taizz -- the places where the violence has been most intense this year, he noted.
The agreement on Hudaydah reached in Sweden offers hopes for a real cessation of hostilities, he said. "As the details (of the agreement) are being worked out, we continue to call for a full cessation of hostilities across the country."
【国际英语资讯:UN humanitarian chief warns against complacency over progress in Yemen】相关文章:
★ 悲惨的2012年
最新
2020-09-15
2020-09-15
2020-09-15
2020-09-15
2020-09-15
2020-09-15