Yemeni Rial (YER)

Yemeni Rial Basic Concepts

The Yemeni Rial is the legal tender of the Republic of Yemen with the ISO 4217 currency code YER and the currency symbol ﷼. The currency is issued and managed by the Central Bank of Yemen and is based on a non-decimal consonance system, with one riyal converted into 100 fils.

Countries and Regions of Use

The Yemeni Riyal is currently the only legal tender in circulation throughout Yemen, including the former territories of North and South Yemen. It is also circulated to a lesser extent in the border areas of neighboring countries, such as Saudi Arabia, due to the demands of cross-border trade.

Currency Units and Denominations

The denominations of banknotes in circulation are 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1,000 riyals, while coins are issued in 1, 5, 10, 20 riyals and 1, 5, 10 fils. The higher denominations feature Yemeni landmarks on the front and scenes of traditional handicrafts on the back.

Historical background and development

The currency was born after the unification of North and South Yemen in 1990, and officially replaced the former North Yemeni Rial and South Yemeni Dinar in 1996.After the Yemeni crisis erupted in 2015, there was a peculiar phenomenon of the co-existence of a new version issued by the Central Bank and a variant printed in Houthi-controlled areas.

Exchange rate and economic characteristics

The Yemeni riyal is subject to a floating exchange rate system and has depreciated over the long term due to the civil war and the economic blockade.2023 There is a significant difference between the black market exchange rate and the official exchange rate, as well as a shortage of coins, a differentiation of the creditworthiness of large banknotes, and other special monetary phenomena in the country.

Security and Printing Technology

The modern version of the rial utilizes basic anti-counterfeiting techniques such as security lines, watermarks, and photochromic inks. Due to the special circumstances of the country, there are significant differences in the material and printing quality of banknotes produced by the mints controlled by different political entities.