THE ARAB AND the People’s Democratic Republics of Yemen merged into a single country in 1990. Since that time the Central Bank of Yemen has been the single banking authority for the nation, issuing rial-denominated bank notes.
The central bank currently issues bank notes in denominations of 100, 200, 250, 500, 1,000, 2,000, and 5,000 rials. According to the most recent issue of MRI Bankers’ Guide to Foreign Currency, “Smaller notes [are] not listed because of [their] low value.” This includes coins in denominations of 1, 5, 10, and 20 rials that have been issued since 1993.
Inflation is a problem, being at 14.7 percent during 2019. For this reason the MRI guide reports, “Hotel bills and airline tickets must be paid with convertible currency.” Any value exceeding $2,000 USD…