SANA’A, Dec. 14 — The value of the Yemeni rial has rapidly increased in the last two days from 238 rials to 218 rials to the dollar, leaving some angry after losing thousands of rials in the exchange rate.

“I heard people saying that the value of the dollar was rapidly decreasing yesterday. I had a thousand dollars and I did not want to lose money,” said Asma Abdulla, a teacher, who had to exchange her money in a rush. Abdulla exchanged her one thousand for 220,000 YR instead of YR 237,000 the previous day.

Demand and supply variables caused the rapid increase in the value of the Yemeni rial. People started to exchange their saved dollars into Yemeni rials in a bid to beat any further losses. But the more people exchanged their dollars the more the value of the Yemeni rial increased.

In a press statement, the Studies & Economic Media Center said it had received complaints from people who tried taking dollars from their bank accounts, but their banks had not allow them to do so.

Local banks said that the Central Bank refused to provide them with hard currencies, especially dollars, during the last few days, according to the Marib2day website.

“The rapid increase of the Yemeni rial has made some people insecure and they want to exchange the dollars they have for rials at once,” said Mohammad Jubran, an accounting teacher at Sana’a University.