DUBAI: Yemen’s foreign currency reserves slipped to $5.6 billion in October, their lowest since August 2012, as oil exports fell again, adding to the impoverished nation’s fiscal problems, central bank data showed.

Yemen depends on oil exports to replenish its currency reserves and pay for up to 70 percent of its budget. But frequent attacks on pipelines by disgruntled tribesmen have squeezed the state’s income.

Yemen’s foreign currency reserves have been edging down gradually since September 2012, when they received a $1 billion boost from Saudi Arabia as part of a round of donor aid pledges. In October, the reserves were enough to cover 5.9 months’ worth of Yemeni imports compared with 6.0 months, or $5.7 billion, in September.

Oil exports fell 8.2 percent in October to $212 million, the lowest level since June. Compared with the same month last year oil exports were down 23.5 percent, a slightly smaller fall than September’s 24.4 percent slide.

Planning minister Mohammed Al-Saadi said Sanaa was close to a deal with the International Monetary Fund on a $550 million loan that could come in early 2014.

The IMF expects Yemen’s budget deficit to shrink to 5.8 percent of gross domestic product this year from 6.3 percent in 2012, the biggest gap since 2009. But its non-oil budget shortfall is set to deepen to 29.6 percent of GDP in 2013 from 28.2 percent in 2012.

Yemen’s annual inflation eased to 9.4 percent in September, the lowest rate since January, from 11.3 percent the previous month, the central bank’s latest release covering key Yemeni indicators showed.