Yemeni rial

Yemeni rial
ريال يمني (Arabic)
1000 Yemeni rial banknote
ISO 4217 code	YER
Central bank	Central Bank of Yemen
Website	www.centralbank.gov.ye
User(s)	Yemen
Inflation	12.2%
Source	The World Factbook, 2010 est.
Subunit
1/100	fils
Symbol	﷼
Coins	1, 5, 10, 20, 50 rials
Banknotes	50, 100, 200, 250, 500, 1000 rials

The rial or riyal is the currency of Yemen. It is technically divided into 100 fils, although coins denominated in fils have not been issued since Yemeni unification.

History

After the union between the North (the Yemen Arab Republic) and the South (the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen) in 1990, both the northern rial and the southern dinar remained legal tender during a transitional period, with 1 dinar exchanged for 26 rials. On 11 June 1996, the dinar was withdrawn from circulation. In 1993, the first coins were issued for the Republic of Yemen. The value of rial against the United States dollar has dropped significantly compared to 12.01 rials per dollar in early 1990s. Since the mid-1990s the Yemeni rial has been freely convertible. Though it has dropped from YER 20 to approximately YER 215 against the U.S. dollar since then, the rial has been stable for several years. However, since 2010 the Central Bank had to intervene several times, resulting in a serious decline of foreign reserves. By late 2013, the Economic Intelligence Unit expects reserves to decline to approximately 1.3 months of imports over the following years, despite information that Saudi Arabia would transfer $1 billion to the Yemeni Central Bank.^[1]

Coins

When Yemen unified, coins had been issued in North Yemen in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 fils and 1 rial. The fils denominations have all disappeared from circulation. In 1993, new coins were introduced by the Central Bank of Yemen in denominations of 1 and 5 rials. These were followed by 10 rials coins in 1995 and 20 rials in 2004.

1 rial	5 rials	10 rials

Banknotes

At the time of unification, Central Bank of Yemen notes in circulation were 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 rials. In 1993, the 1 and 5 rials notes were replaced by coins, with the same happening to the 10 rials notes in 1995. In 1996, 200 rials notes were introduced, followed by 500 rials in 1997 and 1000 rials in 1998. The 20 rials notes were replaced by coins in 2004. In addition, a 250 rial banknote was issued on November 14, 2009.^[2][3]

Currently circulating banknotes
Image		Value	Main Colour	Description
Obverse	Reverse			Obverse	Reverse
		50 rials	Olive-green	Bronze statue of Ma'adkarib	Shibam city, Hadramaut
		100 rials	Purple	Ancient culverts, Aden	San'a
		200 rials	Green	Alabaster sculpture	Mukalla
[4]	[5]	250 rials	Orange & blue	Al-Saleh mosque, Sana'a	Mukalla
		500 rials	Blue	Palace of the Rock	Al-Muhtar mosque, Tarim
		1,000 rials	Pink & green	Sultan's palace in Seiyun, Hadramaut	Bab Al-Yaman gate, San'a

See also

• Economy of Yemen
• Ahmed A AL-Samawi

References

External links