Banks have been lending the Houthi government 161 billion riyals over the past 10 months
English - Saturday 28 November 2020 الساعة 01:43 pm
Sanaa, NewsYemen, Exclusive:
Yemeni banks, which are based in the capital, Sana'a, are taking money from the poor and depository merchants, and handing it over to the Houthi militia in the form of loans, to continue the war against the Yemenis.
The militia revealed that it borrowed 161 billion riyals to cover part of the financial deficit for its expenditures during the first tenth months of 2020, from borrowing from banks in the form of treasury bills and government bonds.
This came in a recent letter submitted by the Houthi leader, Hashim Ismail Al-Moayad, appointed by the militia as governor of the Central Bank of Sana'a, to the Prime Minister of the Houthi coup government, Abdulaziz bin Habtoor.
Although the Central Bank of Yemen, from its headquarters in Aden, raised the interest rate on deposit certificates to 27%, the profit on agency deposits to 23%, and the interest rate for government bonds to 17%, local banks preferred the Houthi militia, and will not provide any loan to the government. Legitimacy through the Central Bank of Aden.
According to FY19 data, commercial and Islamic bank loans and advances to the Houthi militia government increased from 12.1% in December 2018 to 18.5% in July 2019, an increase of 6.4% driven by the registration of domestic debt service owed by the government to banks that book-record, and by new cash loans.
Economists considered the failure and corruption of the Hadi government to transfer the financial center of Yemen from the capital, Sanaa, to the temporary capital of Aden, which helped the Houthi militia to dominate the banking sector.
After the Houthi militia dominated the Central Bank of Yemen in the capital, Sana'a, the Houthi militia imposed illegal interventions on transactions and restricted the work of Yemeni banks in their main headquarters in Sana'a, to control banking activity and pass suspicious money laundering operations.
According to banking sources, Houthi operations include concealing and disguising transfers that include millions of dollars out of the country, as well as money laundering operations.
International reports say that Houthi traders working in the arms trade have illegally transferred millions of dollars between Yemen and Somalia in suspicious operations, which prompted the World Bank to study a draft law to regulate money exchange and remittances in the country.
