Yemen Market Watch Report, Issue No. 33 (February 2019)
Highlights
• The Yemeni Riyal depreciated in the last week of February 2019 relative to the US$ dollar by 6 percent when compared to January 2019. Against the pre-crisis period, the USD gained 165 percent compared to the YER.
• In February 2019, the flow of supply and ensured availability of basic food commodities at local markets in most governorates except for some scarcity of food commodities in Al Hodieda and Soqatra. Half of all governorates reported availability of diesel and petrol.
• Retail prices of food commodities in February 2019 slightly increased further by an average of (1.2-3%) from those reported in January; however, the prices are still much higher (35-145%) than the pre-crisis period. National average retail prices of fuel commodities also reduced in February 2019 by about 2-6 percent compared to January 2019; which are 86-117 percent higher than the prices recorded before the crisis.
• The average cost of the minimum food basket dropped by 3 percent in February 2019 in comparison to January 2019. It remains 102 percent higher than before the crisis.
• The Alert for Price Spikes (ALPS) indicator remain at crisis levels in February 2019 for all basic food items and the cost of food basket .
Macroeconomic situation
In February 2019, additional fronts opened between the conflicting parties. These events foreshadow consequences on the humanitarian and economic level. The implementation of the Stockholm Agreement in Al Hodieda city is still ambiguous. Al Hodieda sea port is still receiving only humanitarian ships, while commercial trade remains interrupted.
The Central Bank of Yemen (CBY) announced the withdrawal of USD 95 million from the Saudi deposit “installment No.16”. CBY stated that this amount is allocated to purchase basic food staples through credit documents provided by a number of Yemeni banks in all governorates.
It worthy to mention that the Saudi deposit of USD 2 billion is allocated for basic foods such as wheat, rice, sugar, infant formula and edible oil to support all Yemeni people.
The value of credit documents for importers to purchase basic food commodities are fixed at the exchange rate to YER 440 for 1 USD, which is the official rate announced by CBY in 2018.
The YER continue to fluctuate against the USD and other foreign currencies in February 2019. Weekly national averages ranged between YER 556 and YER 595 per one USD.
The cooking gas crisis in northern Yemen, which is under the control of the de-facto authority, also continued in February. The latest average price was YER 4,725 per 18 kg cylinder. This is almost 64 percent above the price in southern areas (YER 2,880), which are under the control of the Internationally Recognized Government (IRG)
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-market-watch-report-issue-no-33-february-2019
