From Aden to Sanaa, Yemenis Struggle as Living Costs Soar

Sanaa, Aden and Marib, Yemen – As fighting between Yemen's government and Houthi forces continues to escalate across the country, millions of Yemenis are confronting another war, far from the front lines: worsening economic and living conditions.

Wages for many workers go unpaid or arrive irregularly, while the prices of goods and services climb. The situation is compounded by a fragmented banking system, which makes transferring money between different parts of the country harder.

From struggling shoppers in Aden to displaced families in Marib and unpaid civil servants in Sanaa, Yemenis are being forced into hard choices about what they can afford and what they must cut.

Aden: Food costs swallow salaries

In Aden, the interim capital of Yemen's internationally recognized government in the south, the problem is not so much a shortage of goods on the market as people's inability to afford them.

Wages are not keeping pace with food costs, rent, healthcare and transport, leaving workers with almost nothing by the end of the month.

The consequences show up in smaller shopping baskets and cheaper products being chosen, along with forced cutbacks.

Bushra Abdullah Abdulwarith is a government employee in Aden. She earns 78,000 Yemeni riyals ($50) a month at the black-market rate, while a typical household food basket in government-controlled areas costs about 130,366 riyals ($83), according to estimates by the Yemen Economic Tracking Initiative. That is before rent, transport, healthcare and other expenses.

The economic hardships facing people like Bushra show how more than a decade of war has devastated the economy. According to the World Bank, real GDP per capita has fallen by about 58 percent since 2015.

The split in monetary institutions between the government and the Houthis – who have run their own institution since seizing the capital Sanaa in 2014 – along with disruptions to oil exports and declining international aid, have all contributed to the economic decline.

Bushra told Al Jazeera that rising prices are forcing many households to give up almost everything non-essential and cut back on some expensive staples, especially meat. Some families are switching to buying food in smaller quantities, sometimes on credit or by borrowing.

Reduced demand

The impact of rising prices is visible not only in economic figures but in how people shop.

Ayman al-Maqtari, who works at a shopping center in Aden's Mansoura district, said his customers now rarely buy non-essential items.

With staples such as rice, sugar, flour and cooking oil, he sees customers weighing the price of each item before putting it in their basket. They are also buying smaller quantities, for example choosing a 5kg bag of rice instead of a 40kg one.

"Many people are living day to day, week to week," Ayman told Al Jazeera, adding that many families buy on credit when the money runs out before the end of the month.

Weaker purchasing power is also affecting business activity.

On many streets and in shopping centers in Aden, discount and special-offer advertisements are appearing more frequently on storefronts and retailers' social media pages, as businesses try to attract customers and boost sales.

According to retailers, weak demand is particularly clear for items households can put off buying, such as clothing and household goods. The share of income going to food, rent, healthcare and transport keeps growing.

Limited pay increase

Yemen's government approved a 20 percent cost-of-living allowance in May for civil servants, aiming to ease price pressures. But it is calculated on each employee's basic salary rather than total income, making the actual increase small for many workers.

Bushra, the government employee in Aden, said the increase has done little to improve her family's finances. She described the allowance as "a temporary painkiller that does not reflect the real pressure on people's standard of living."

Her case is far from isolated. In early October, the World Food Programme said its latest monitoring in government-controlled areas showed 74 percent of households were unable to meet basic food needs.

One of the places where the crisis is most visible is Marib, a government-controlled city east of Sanaa that is home to hundreds of thousands of displaced people. The population surge during the war years in what was once a provincial area has strained the city's housing, jobs and public services.

Civil servants in Marib see their salaries vanish within days of being paid, laborers struggle to find a few days of work, and displaced families are forced to choose between buying water and buying milk.

Salah al-Zuhaifi works for a government agency in Marib. He said the war has separated him from his parents, who live in Houthi-controlled territory.

Living alone in Marib, al-Zuhaifi said inflation has eroded most of the purchasing power of his salary.

"No matter how much you earn, it is not enough to meet your needs," he said.

Abu Mohammed Nasser al-Asbahi, another civil servant, described a similar struggle.

He told Al Jazeera he earns 400,000 riyals ($250) a month, but more than half of that goes to rent, leaving very little for other expenses.

"Our salary is gone before a third of the month has passed," he said, explaining that his family lives the remaining days on loans and credit from local shops.

Marib's health sector has also been hit by widespread spending cuts.

Pharmacist Khaled Mohsen told Al Jazeera that rising medicine prices are leading many patients to refuse part of their prescriptions and buy only what they consider most essential.

Meanwhile, people with chronic illnesses are increasingly reducing their doses to make them last longer before they have to buy more, creating serious health risks.

Houthi-controlled areas

Residents of Sanaa and other densely populated areas in northwestern Yemen, controlled by the Houthis – the armed group also known as Ansar Allah – since 2014, are also facing an economic and cost-of-living crisis worsening much like elsewhere in the country.

Many factors are driving the crisis, especially unpaid civil servant salaries, eroding purchasing power, rising prices for goods and services, and the lasting effects of the monetary and banking system split in the war's early years.

Many civil servants in Houthi-controlled areas have not received regular salaries for years, with some sectors receiving only limited or partial payments irregularly.

Even when they are paid, the amounts are not enough to cover a family's basic needs amid soaring living costs.

Meanwhile, private-sector workers and business owners are under growing pressure from declining economic activity, numerous fees and levies, and a lack of job opportunities. The situation is eroding incomes and job security.

The Yemeni riyal's exchange rate in Houthi-controlled Sanaa is more stable than in government-controlled areas. The Houthis have imposed strict currency controls, banning the circulation of new banknotes printed by Yemen's government and maintaining a near-fixed exchange rate.

That does not necessarily mean stronger purchasing power, however. The market struggles with cash shortages and the split between monetary and banking systems in different regions, including higher remittance costs.

This directly affects many households that rely on domestic and international remittances.

For residents in Houthi-controlled areas, the result is an economy where the currency may be relatively stable but livelihoods are precarious. Years of unpaid salaries and limited job opportunities have left many families struggling to cover basic needs, with few options beyond borrowing, cutting spending or relying on support from relatives.