Yemen's cabinet approves 2013 draft budget 

(MENAFN) Yemen's cabinet has endorsed 2013 draft budget, with a projected deficit of USD3.17 billion and expenditure of USD12.81 billion, Reuters reported, citing official news agency SABA.

The new budget's forecasted deficit is 21 percent higher than the deficit originally projected by the government for 2012, while expenditure is about 2 percent higher.

According to SABA, the draft budget, pending the parliament's approval, estimated revenue of USD9.62 billion.

The poorest Arab country is struggling with the consequences of last year's violent political turmoil that forced President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down in February.

The government since then sought billions of dollars of aid to overcome financial and security challenges.

Saudi Arabia and other donors have pledged around USD8 billion in aid over the next two years to Yemen, which was on the verge of bankruptcy and plunged into factional anarchy by the year-long uprising against Saleh.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Yemen's gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 10.5 percent in 2011. In October, it forecasted the economy would shrink 1.9 percent this year.

The official inflation rate hit 25 percent year-on-year in October 2011 before it eased to 6.9 percent in July this year, according to the central bank's latest data.