Yemen

North Yemen became independent of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. The British, who had set up a protectorate area around the southern port of Aden in the 19th century, withdrew in 1967 from what became South Yemen. Three years later, the southern government adopted a Marxist orientation. The massive exodus of hundreds of thousands of Yemenis from the south to the north contributed to two decades of hostility between the states. The two countries were formally unified as the Republic of Yemen in 1990. A southern secessionist movement in 1994 was quickly subdued. In 2000, Saudi Arabia and Yemen agreed to a delimitation of their border.

Economical characteristics

 * Currency: Yemeni rial (ISO code: YER)
 * Central bank discount rate: NA%
 * Commercial banks lending rate: 18% (31 December 2008)
 * Stock of money (M1): $3.489 billion (31 October 2009)
 * Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $6.077 billion (31 October 2009)

Notable events:

 * Banking crisis: 1996-?

Links

 * Yemen on Wikipedia
 * Central bank of Yemen
 * Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
 * BBC country profile
 * Chaos in Yemen Drives Economy to Edge of Ruin by Robert F. Worth and Laura Kasinof, June 2011