Explained
Why Yemen has two exchange rates
Not a quirk of the market. A direct consequence of the country having two central banks that do not recognise each other.
The Central Bank of Yemen split into rival institutions — one in Aden aligned with the internationally recognised government, one in Sana'a aligned with the Houthi authorities. Two central banks means two monetary policies, and in January 2020 Sana'a banned the newer banknotes issued by Aden. From that point the two areas were effectively using different money.
The banknote ban is the key event
Aden continued printing new rial notes to fund government spending. Sana'a prohibited those notes from circulating in the areas it controls. The result: old notes circulate in the north, new notes in the south, and they are not interchangeable.
Because the north's stock of old notes is fixed and cannot be expanded, the currency there has not been inflated by new printing in the way the south's has. The nominal strength of the Sana'a rate reflects that constraint — it is a symptom of monetary control, not of a healthier economy. Prices and purchasing power in the north tell a much less encouraging story than the exchange rate alone suggests.
What this means for you
- →Establish which area your family collects in before you estimate anything. It changes the rate by roughly a factor of three.
- →Ask your provider which rate they apply and which banknotes the payout is made in. An agent in one area cannot usefully pay out the other area's notes.
- →Treat any single quoted "Yemeni rial rate" from a general currency site with suspicion — it is almost certainly showing only one side of the split.
Track the current rates
See the actual gap right now between the two cities. We track the current parallel-market rates side by side.