Yemen economy: Trailing behind the rest.

Think of the Gulf, and you visualize super-rich Kingdoms and Emirates awash with oil wealth, and abuzz with multi billion dollar projects, moving and shaking the international economic system.

Not so Yemen, the poor cousin of the richer Gulf states in the Middle East, like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc. According to a recent study, nearly one third of Yemenis endure chronic hunger, and 35% of the population lives below the infamous poverty line. And an equal percentage of the workforce is unemployed.

Quite ironic, given the fact that its other Gulf cousins are deficient in labor and import them in large numbers. As a matter of fact, hundreds of thousands of Yemenis work in the Gulf states, remitting over a billion dollars every year. In fact, that is the major source of revenues to the country, with oil revenues, as such modest, coming down further, on account of the fall in oil prices. The per capita income of the country is abysmally low compared to its richer cousins in the Middle East.

Poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, etc, the standard features of the least developed countries, are to be found in Yemen. With inflation running in double digits, it is an uphill task for the population to maintain a reasonable lifestyle.

Yemen is a modest producer of oil, though its gas reserves are considerable, though unexploited. Among the major agricultural produce of the country is coffee, cotton, wheat, sugar, etc. Yemen exports coffee, cotton, refined oil, sugar, processed fish, etc., and imports a wide array of consumer products, industrial machinery, foodstuffs, etc.

Recently the World Bank, in its quarterly study of the Yemeni economy projected a GDP growth rate of 7.7%. The development process in Yemen can take off and be sustained in the long run by integrating its economy with the Gulf economies, and attracting investment from them for infrastructure projects, and other projects that can earn foreign exchange for the country, while generating employment.