Wadhah Al-Awlaqi has served as the Chief Economist at the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies since 2019. He has over a decade of experience in economic research, analysis, and policy development focused on Yemen. He held several key positions at the Central Bank of Yemen, overseeing strategic planning, financial reporting, budget management, and accounting operations. He holds an MBA in Finance from the prestigious KAIST Business School in South Korea.
Wadhah's latest contributions
Yemen Economic Bulletin: November Updates
Following an escalation in recent months, there was some progress by the end of November in mediating a solution to end the struggle between the two fragmented branches of the Central Bank of Yemen (CBY) over access to financial data from the country's commercial and Islamic banks and money exchange outlets
Yemen Economic Bulletin: Battle to Regulate Banks Threatens to Rupture the Financial Sector
The rival branches of the fragmented Central Bank of Yemen (CBY) have recently escalated their battle for control over access to data held by the country’s commercial and Islamic banks and money exchange firms, threatening the viability of the financial sector overall and risking a broad spectrum of economic and humanitarian fallout.
Yemen’s Accelerating Economic Woes During the COVID-19 Pandemic
This paper presents policy recommendations to address this situation for the United Nations and other international stakeholders, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, as well as the internationally recognized Yemeni government and the de facto authorities in Sana’a (the armed Houthi movement, Ansar Allah).
Yemen Economic Bulletin: Tax and Rule – Houthis Move to Institutionalize Hashemite Elite with ‘One-Fifth’ Levy
On April 29, Houthi authorities in Sana’a formally enacted new regulations on the collection and use of zakat, the Islamic obligation for individuals to donate a portion of their wealth each year to charitable causes. The executive bylaw, signed by Mehdi al-Mashat, president of the Houthi-run Supreme Political Council (SPC), imposes a khums tax … Read more
Yemen Economic Bulletin: Widening Exchange Rate Disparity Between New and Old Banknotes
Exchange rate divergence between Sana’a and Aden reached a record high by the end of August, with a Yemeni rial worth 33 percent less in Aden than in Sana’a. The rial was trading at YR805 per US$1 in the Aden parallel exchange market, compared to YR605 per US$1 in Sana’a.
The difference in value of the rial between government- and … Read more