Aden-Based Government Revenue Insufficient For Paying Salaries

The Yemeni government revenue is insufficient to pay 40% of the salaries of the public employees and cannot guarantee a stable supply of electricity to Aden City, the Central Bank of Yemen's Governor Ahmed Ghaleb has said.

This revelation comes amidst rising public protests over power outages in Aden and other southern cities. Ghaleb described the situation of the country at the economic level as "catastrophic".

He indicated that the Yemeni government had lost one trillion and five hundred billion Yemeni riyals because of the Ansar Allah (Houthi) attacks on oil ports and the truce agreement that diverted ships to Houthi-controlled ports.

Amidst the formidable challenges the government faces, the government can follow one of three options. One option is improving the state revenues through better collection of diverse taxes and fees.

Borrowing from other countries is another choice. However, Ghaleb considers this option "impossible" because Yemen has been unable to pay debts since the beginning of the war.

 The third option is financing government expenditures by printing currency, but this approach is disastrous and destructive, according to Ghaleb.

Since last week, protests in southern provinces, including Aden, broke out demanding the government better public services, particularly electricity. While the protestors call for urgent solutions to power outages, Ghaleb points out that fixing the power shortage in provinces under government control requires massive budgets.

He said, "The state budget cannot provide electricity, as Yemen uses the most expensive and polluting fuel, diesel. All the country's resources cannot generate power with diesel for Aden and its neighboring cities."

Despite the enormous financial support Yemen has received from Saudi Arabia over the past years, the country's economy remains in tatters. Since the outset of this year, Saudi Arabia announced two deposits into the Central Bank of Yemen in Aden.

Riyadh declared a one-billion-dollar grant for the UN-recognized government in February this year. Early this month, the kingdom announced the provision of economic support worth $1.2 billion in support of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), according to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

Ghaleb emphasized that the foreign financial support is insufficient to revive the economy. He said, "Grants and deposits are reliable for specific months, and they cannot build a country."