Efforts by Yemen's internationally recognised government to stabilise the Yemeni riyal have succeeded in halting its freefall — from roughly 2,900 to the US dollar months ago to around 1,500 today — but have triggered a severe liquidity shortage that is crippling daily life across government-held cities. The Central Bank of Aden (the wartime financial institution backing the Saudi-supported administration) has shut down unauthorised exchange firms, centralised remittance flows, and restricted hard-currency conversion, leaving residents in cities such as Aden, Taiz, and Mukalla unable to convert US dollars or Saudi riyals into local cash, with some exchange outlets capping daily transactions at just 50 Saudi riyals per person. The crunch has paralysed small businesses, forced government workers to receive wages in bags of low-denomination banknotes that merchants refuse to accept, prompted reports of patients being denied medical treatment, and given rise to a black market — worsening conditions in a country already devastated by more than a decade of war between the government and the Iran-aligned Houthi movement.