U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock speaks during a news conference at Sanaa airport, Yemen November 29, 2018. REUTERS/Mohamed al-Sayaghi

GENEVA (Reuters) - Yemen’s government will need billions of dollars in external support to finance its 2019 budget and avoid another currency collapse in addition to $4 billion in aid, U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock said on Tuesday.

Lowcock said he had discussed the balance of payments deficit and the need to pay Yemeni salaries and pensions with officials from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States at weekend talks in Riyadh.

“There is going to be a need for billions of dollars of support so they can finance core functions of government,” Lowcock told a news conference. “Unless they get some external finance for their budget these problems we saw with the rial plummeting will be back.”