Yemen's foreign reserves have hit $3 billion, the highest level in the poor Arab state's history, the central bank governor said in remarks published on Feb 8, 2001. "The central bank's reserves as of the beginning of 2001 reached around $3 billion and they are enough to cover twelve months of imports," Ahmad Abdul-Rahmad al-Samawi told the state-run 26 September weekly. He attributed the increase to successful monetary policies under the economic reform programme which began in 1995 under the