Yemen Needs Additional Economic Assistance To Stabilize Country Beyond 2019 - IMF

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th December, 2018) Yemen will need economic stabilization assistance beyond next year in addition to the near-term stopgap measures currently in place, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a press release following consultations with officials in the war ravaged nation.

"The package of economic measures discussed will only provide a stopgap solution mitigating the humanitarian crisis in the short run," the release said. "Restoring the sustainability of the country's external and fiscal positions beyond 2019 will require additional economic stabilization efforts."

While the armed conflict remains the ultimate cause of the humanitarian crisis, the release added, there was agreement that better economic policies backed by increased donor grants could appreciably help mitigate the humanitarian crisis in the short run.

Despite four years of civil war, estimates by the UN that up to 12 million Yemenis are at risk of starvation and repeated warnings by aid agencies that the nation's humanitarian crisis remains at a tipping report, the IMF said that stepped up humanitarian aid has so far forestalled outright famine conditions.

Yemen is divided between an internationally recognized government and Houthi rebels that have seized control of much of Western Yemen including the capital of Sanaa.