Editing Economy of Yemen (section)

== Integration issues ==
In the south, pre-independence economic activity was overwhelmingly concentrated in the port city of [[Aden]]. The seaborne transit trade, upon which the port relied, collapsed with the closure of the [[Suez Canal]] and Britain's withdrawal from [[Aden]] in 1967. Only extensive Soviet aid, remittances from south Yemenis working abroad, and revenues from the Aden refinery (built in the 1950s) kept the PDRY's centrally planned [[Marxist]] economy afloat. With the [[History of the Soviet Union (1985–1991)|dissolution of the Soviet Union]] and a cessation of Soviet aid, the south's economy effectively collapsed.

Since unification, the government has worked to integrate two relatively disparate economic systems. However, severe shocks — including the return of approximately 850,000 Yemenis in 1990 from the [[Persian Gulf]] states, a subsequent major reduction of aid flows, and internal political disputes culminating in the 1994 civil war — hampered economic growth.