The Syrian pound falls to its lowest level on the black market

The exchange rate of the Syrian pound against the US dollar fell on Tuesday to its lowest level on the black market, according to the economic report "Syria Report".

The Syrian pound began to decline again early in the New Year, up to the exchange rate yesterday, £ 650 per dollar.

Jihad Yazji, editor-in-chief of the Syrian economic news bulletin, told AFP that the read "has fallen to the lowest rate in its history," noting that the "drop is brutal", the rate exchange rate of the dollar being 500 lire in December 2018.

The decline of the Syrian pound is due, among other things, to economic sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States in Damascus.

The Syria Report has listed other factors of the recent depreciation of the lira, highlighting mainly the impact of strong dollar demand in neighboring Lebanon, as "Beirut is a major dollar market for Syrian importers, who use the Lebanese banking system to conduct their business operations ".

The economic bulletin pointed to the balance of payments deficit and trade balance in bad shape "because the domestic production capacity is very destructive and imports are needed to satisfy domestic demand".

The exchange rate of the Syrian currency before the outbreak of the crisis in March 2011 was 48 pounds sterling to the dollar.

According to the Syrian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Syria's losses in the oil and gas sector alone during the years of conflict amounted to $ 74.2 billion, while the UN estimated there at one year the cost of repairing the destruction in Syria of about 400 billion dollars.

Source: "AFP"

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