ADEN: Yemen’s rising fuel import bill surged past its declining revenues from oil exports in 2013, central bank data showed yesterday, putting increasing pressure on government finances.
Yemen, one of the Arab world’s poorest countries, relies on oil exports to finance up to 70 percent of its budget. But frequent attacks on its oil infrastructure over the past two years has slashed exports and led to a rise in fuel imports for the domestic market. Yemen’s oil product imports more than doubled to 18.4 million barrels in 2013 at a cost of $2.93bn, while the government’s oil revenues slumped by $833m to $2.66bn, according to a report published by Yemen’s central bank. Reuters
