Amid Political Turmoil, Yemen’s Economy Poses Bigger Threat

Infighting over control of the levers of power rumbles on in Yemen, where last month Houthi rebels forced the resignation of the government at gunpoint. Although it has attracted less attention, the country’s economy is also in increasingly dire shape. If, as is likely, nothing is done to shore up government finances in the coming months, a long-predicted economic collapse is more or less certain.

President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi announced his plans to step down on Jan. 22, shortly after his prime minister, Khaled Bahah, and the Cabinet he assembled last November said they were resigning en masse due to the Houthi power grab. The Houthis, a Zaydi Shiite group from the north of the country who have effectively controlled the capital, Sanaa, since September, seized the presidential palace and Hadi’s private residence along with the headquarters of Yemen’s two main intelligence agencies on Jan. 21. They have since kept the president, prime minister and Cabinet members under house arrest. ...