Pro-coalition Government Losing Yemen’s Creditworthiness , Holding Yemenis Billions in Debt

A report issued by the pro-coalition government revealed that the external debt of Yemen increased from 6 billion and 765 million dollars in 2014 to 9 billion dollars in 2019.

According to YPA, the data came in a report issued by the Economic Studies Sector in the Ministry of Planning in cooperation with the World Bank and UNICEF.

Net domestic debt rose from 3 trillion in 2014 to about 6 trillion riyals this year, accounting for 94% of GDP.

Net public debt due (internal and external) to Yemen increased in the second half of 2019, by 41% to 10 trillion and 401 billion riyals, compared to 6 trillion and 563 billion riyals at the end of 2014, according to New Arab newspaper.

Although the absolute value of the external public debt stabilized below $ 7 billion during 2014 – 2017, it increased by $ 2 billion due to the Saudi deposit in 2018.

Consequently, the ratio of external public debt to GDP increased from 22% in 2014 to 77% in June 2019. As a result, Yemen’s creditworthiness has deteriorated, due to the difficulty in fulfilling the external public debt service, which has been further inflated by the Saudi deposit conditional on interest.