News - Yemen: The Riyadh-formed Presidential Council has approved a sharp increase in customs duties and the adoption of a customs dollar rate tied to black‑market exchange levels — a move critics say will further squeeze household budgets and deepen Yemen’s economic crisis.

Economic analysts warned the customs hike could push prices up by more than 30 percent for food, medicines and essential services, widening hunger and poverty amid weak oversight and no consumer‑protection measures.

Observers described the measure as a direct assault on Yemeni livelihoods and as an implementation of directives from Washington, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi intended to deepen the country’s hardship.

Some analysts went further, alleging the policy is part of a coordinated plan to drain liquidity in free zones and weaken the national economy to service foreign agendas — including those of Washington, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and the Zionist enemy — rather than genuine economic reform.

Voices across the political spectrum called the decision a de facto economic war that targets basic subsistence, asserting it aims to impose external control over national decision‑making while distracting the public with day‑to‑day survival pressures. Activists and experts urged a strategic shift toward self‑reliance and boosting local production as the most viable response to blunt the effects of the economic campaign.

The new customs hike and dollar deregulation intensify Yemen’s economic crisis, driving up prices for food, medicine, and fuel. Analysts say the measures, driven by Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Washington, and the Zionist enemy, weaken national sovereignty, deepen dependence on foreign powers, and worsen poverty and humanitarian suffering.