AL-WAHDA: Sanaa weekly, 18-2-98. [Archives:1998/08/Press Review]

(Official)
Main Headline:
1- During his recent visit, the President praised China’s rational policy of openness.”
2- Council of Ministers studies teachers’ law, while, teachers threaten to go on strike.
3- People’s General Congress Assistant Secretary-General: “Dialogue with opposition parties to start within two weeks.”
4- Ministry of Labor reviews proposed trade unions law.
5- During a big mass rally, Yemeni political parties condemned US threats against Iraq.
Article Summary:
Yemeni Currency & Reform
By: Ahmed Rajeh
Stabilizing the Yemeni riyal’s rate of exchange at around 130 for the dollar is caused mainly by oil companies and donor countries making hard currency deposits in Yemeni banks. It does not, as government sources would have us believe, result from implementing the economic reform program. If there were a clear economic reform in progress, the riyal would have risen up to its pre-collapse exchange rate of 60 to the dollar. Any sudden withdrawal of large amounts of hard currency is liable to destabilize the Yemeni riyal, as happened in the South-east Asian countries.

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