ADEN, Yemen, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia will deposit 1 billion U.S. dollars in Yemen's central bank based in the southern port city of Aden to help the war-ravaged Arab country weather cash and financial hardships, a government official told Xinhua on Tuesday.
"During the upcoming hours, officials of Yemen's internationally-recognized government will attend a signing ceremony in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh to receive a 1-billion-U.S. dollars deposit from the kingdom," the local government source said on condition of anonymity.
"Governor of the Aden-based Central Bank of Yemen Ahmed Ghalib Al-Mabaqi along with other Yemeni financial officials already headed to Riyadh to sign the deposit agreement with Saudi Arabia's officials," he added.
The move aims "to help the government in confronting the sharp collapse of the national currency and reduce the suffering of the Yemeni people as a result of the skyrocketing prices of basic commodities," the source noted.
In Aden, the Yemeni riyal is now traded in the black market at 1,225 for one dollar, the lowest exchange rate since the beginning of the military conflict between the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels.
Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Houthi militia stormed several northern cities and forced the government out of the capital Sanaa. ■
