Syria's Bashar Al Assad orders third financial stimulus as economic crisis deepens

Syrian government workers and soldiers will receive a one-time payout, equivalent to an average monthly salary

 A man walks past a banner depicting Syrian president Bashar Al Assad in Douma, outside Damascus, Syria, September 17, 2018. Reuters.

Amid sharp economic decline, Syrian President Bashar Assad issued a decree on Tuesday granting hundreds of thousands of public sector workers and soldiers a one-time financial stimulus, equivalent to an average monthly salary.

The stimulus – the third since October – comes as the national currency is crashing, now at 4,000 Syrian pounds to the dollar on the black market, compared to 700 a year ago. The official rate for the dollar is fixed at 1,256 Syrian pounds for $1.

Nearly 80 per cent of Syrians live in poverty, and 60 per cent are food insecure – the worst food security situation ever seen in Syria, according to the UN.

The decree stated that a one-time 50,000 Syrian pounds, which is nearly $11 on the black market, would go to public sector workers, including those on part-time contracts and conscripts. And 40,000 Syrian pounds would be dispensed to pensioners.

Inflation has hit between 180 and 300 per cent, according to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics. The price of a kilogram of sugar has gone from 700 Syrian pounds to about 2,400 this year.

Economist Ziad Ghosn said the one-time payment was equivalent to the average monthly salary and estimated the cost of the stimulus would be around 120 billion Syrian pounds. He also estimated the stimulus would reach about two million people.

Syrians have been struggling with deteriorating economic conditions, shortages of basic goods and medicine and waiting in long lines to buy subsidised bread and fuel.

A decade of conflict has caused devastation to the Syrian economy, isolated its government and displaced its people, driving most of them into poverty. The pandemic restrictions have added to pressure on the economy, compounded by the financial crisis in neighbouring Lebanon, which has been a bridge to Syria economically and financially.

More than half a million people have been killed in Syria’s 10-year conflict that has also left the country’s infrastructure in ruins and most of its oil and agriculture resources outside of government control.