Economic crisis in Syria worsens with global inflation

by time news

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is visiting Tehran on Tuesday, July 19, for a summit with Iranian and Turkish leaders devoted to the situation in Syria. After twelve years of uninterrupted war, the country is sinking deeper into economic crisis every day.

Syria is today a country in ruins. A country emptied of its inhabitants where electricity and bread are rationed. In ten years of war, the gross domestic product has been halved. Because of the disorganization, the fragmentation of the country. Because of the massive exodus: seven million Syrians have fled abroad, and six million have been driven from their homes, displaced by the fighting.

But it is also because of the Covid, then the war in Ukraine, that the health and food situation has suddenly deteriorated. The price of food products has doubled in one year. That of bread has even tripled. This country, which has become self-sufficient in wheat since the 1990s, experienced last year the worst harvest for fifty years, according to FAO figures. With about one million tons of wheat, almost three times less than in 2020. Syria produced an average of 4 million tons per year before the war broke out.

Famine now threatens, an opposition member warned

Because the drought and the lack of fertilizer will undoubtedly further reduce this year’s harvest. From 2018, Syria imported wheat planted in Crimea via Russian companies. Cargoes of Ukrainian wheat diverted by Russia have recently been sent there. But faced with soaring prices, these imports facilitated by Moscow are not enough to feed the population. The World Food Program now provides aid to one in three inhabitants, or more than 5 million Syrians. This support is essential in the north-west of the country, where 80% of the inhabitants of this region, which is still at war, depend on the WFP for daily food.

What are the own resources that allow Syria to survive?

The regime is still under Western sanctions. The undeclared activities and the support of the two great brother countries, Russia and Iran, are decisive in reviving the few industries in working order. Often with a major drawback for the Syrians: companies come under the control of the regime’s sponsors. In the field of phosphate, for example, of which Syria was a major exporter, the public sector was sold in 2018 to two Russian oligarchs.

One of them, Gennady Timchenko, a close associate of Vladimir Putin, is on the list of personalities sanctioned by the European Union. He nevertheless continued his activities under cover of front companies. This allowed Syria to export phosphate to Europe, via Romania, recently revealed the survey carried out by a consortium of Middle Eastern newspapers. This stranglehold by Russia is continuous. A Russian company signed a contract a few days ago to build a new tourist complex in the port of Latakia.

Investments that will eventually provide work and therefore income for Syrians?

To survive on a daily basis, transfers from the diaspora are a real safety valve. According to an estimate by the pro-government Syrian daily El Watan, 3 billion 600 million dollars would be sent over a year. This represents about half of the amount of humanitarian aid pledged to the United Nations for the financial year 2022-2023.

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