The central bank of war-torn Yemen has raised interest rates on deposits to an all-time high of 27 percent in a bid to stabilise the plunging riyal that has caused food prices to soar.
The bank also raised interest rates on government bonds to 17 percent from 12 percent, and banned people from taking out more than $10,000 from Yemen without a prior permit, the official Saba news agency reported.
Previously the interest rate on deposits was 17 percent, according to the Facebook account of the central bank, run by the internationally-recognised government.
The move is aimed at strengthening the riyal and reducing sky-rocketing inflation.
Since the start of a Saudi-led military campaign against Houthi rebels in March 2015, the riyal has lost more than two-thirds of its value.
The Yemeni currency nose-dived at the start of the year despite Saudi Arabia placing a $2 billion deposit in the central bank, now based in the government's temporary capital of Aden.
The slide in the value of the currency has triggered a sharp rise in the prices of basic commodities, especially food and fuel.
In January, Yemen's government issued its first budget in three years, projecting a $1.3 billion deficit.
Yemen's embattled government agreed to raise the salaries of thousands of public-sector employees, including pensioners, after hundreds of people protested in Aden against the rising cost of living.
For more than a year, the government has been unable to pay salaries in the impoverished and war-torn country, as the local currency plummets against the dollar.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Monday that currency depreciation is likely to make another 3.5 million people food insecure, in addition to 8.4 million people who need emergency food assistance.
In 2016, more than one million civil servants lost their jobs as Hadi transferred the official central bank from Sanaa to Aden.
The rebels operate their own central bank from the capital, which they have controlled since 2014.
The Yemeni war has triggered what the UN calls the world's largest single humanitarian crisis, with more than three-quarters of the population in need of humanitarian aid and as many as 13,000 people dead.
On Wednesday, the charity Save the Children warned that more than five million children are at risk of famine in Yemen.
Deadly clashes resumed around the Houthi-held port city of Hodeida following the collapse of talks in Geneva earlier this month.
"Millions of children don't know when or if their next meal will come," said Helle Thorning-Schmidt, CEO of Save the Children International.
"In one hospital I visited in north Yemen, the babies were too weak to cry, their bodies exhausted by hunger.
"This war risks killing an entire generation of Yemen's children who face multiple threats, from bombs to hunger to preventable diseases like cholera," she added.
Agencies contributed to this report.
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