Yemen

Yemen: an outright decline in dollar terms, 1990–2018

Already the Arab world's poorest country, Yemen saw its economy collapse after civil war escalated in 2014-15, with output roughly halving and the country split between rival authorities, producing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Between 1990 and 2018, Yemen's GDP per capita grew from $910 to $634 (current US$), a compound annual growth rate of -1.3% — an outright decline in dollar terms. Annual GDP growth averaged 1.9% with a year-to-year standard deviation of 7.4 points, reflecting considerable volatility and periodic crises. Structurally, agriculture's share of the economy moved from 27.4% to 28.7% of GDP (a notable increase), while services rose from 30.0% to 41.8% of GDP, underscoring a shift toward a services-driven economy. On human development, life expectancy rose from 50.6 to 69.4 years, while tertiary school enrollment moved from 4.0% to 8.8%, while the urban population share grew from 12.4% to 36.8%.

What this growth cost: Growth was not without cost: per-capita CO2 emissions fell from 0.43 to 0.26 tonnes CO2e per person; income inequality (Gini index) widened from 35.0 to 36.7; the poverty headcount ratio increased from 14.1% to 33.3%.