Introduction

The Yemen Joint Market Monitoring Initiative (JMMI) was launched by REACH in collaboration with the Water,
Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Cluster and the Cash and Market Working Group (CMWG) to support humanitarian actors with the harmonization of price monitoring among all cash actors in Yemen.

The JMMI is a monthly survey of market systems. The basket of goods assessed includes 10 non-food items (NFIs), such as fuel, water, and hygiene products, reflecting the programmatic areas of the WASH Cluster. The JMMI tracks all components of the WASH and Food Survival Minimum Expenditure Basket (SMEB) as well as other food and non-food items. In addition to price monitoring, the JMMI includes indicators of market fuctionality, such as questions to infere the supply chain, vendors’ constraints and ability to meet demands.

Methodology

Data was collected through interviews with vendor key informants (KIs), selected by partner organisations from markets of various sizes in both urban and rural areas. A minimum of three price quotations, per district, must be obtained. Following data collection, REACH compiles, cleans and analyzes all data, through detailed followups with partners. REACH uses medians to aggregate findings to district, governorate, de-facto authorities (DFA), internationally recognized government (IRG), and national level. It also calculates SMEB prices. Findings are indicative for the assessed locations and time frame in which the data was collected. Please refer to page 12 for additional methodological details.

JMMI monthly figures

Data collection 3rd- 7th of May

14 Participating partners

12 Governorates assessed

49 Districts assessed

197 Prices collected per monitored item (average)

Key findings

In May, the exchange rate stood at 556 YER/USD in DFA areas and at 1016 YER/USD in IRG areas, which was an appreciation of 3% and 10% respectively compared to April.

Petrol and diesel prices were found at at 618 (-33%) and 876 (-14%) per litre in the DFA, which were the lowest prices since January 2022. In the IRG, fuel prices also decreased; the median petrol price was found at 1002 (-18%) and diesel at 1226 (-14%). However, the cooking gas price in the IRG remained stable, whereas it decreased with 32% in DFA areas.

The median price of the food SMEB, with canned beans, in the IRG decreased with 8% compared to the previous month (113802 YER). For DFA areas, the price was measured at 58658, a decrease of 2%.

The highest increase in median price was dried kidney beans (+27%), measured in the DFA. In the IRG, it was onions, which increased in price with 9%.

The cost of the WASH SMEB appeared relatively stable: it was measured at 27699 YER (-4%) in the IRG and at 17716 YER (-1%) in the DFA.

The proportion of fuel vendors reporting shortages in fuel decreased by one-third between April and May. The number stood at 29% compared to 42% in the previous month.

Food vendors most commonly reported constraint was price inflation (92%), high fuel prices (45%), and liquidity shortage (21%)

Source: UN Children’s Fund