Displaying items by tag: Syrian Economy

At the beginning of Ramadan 2022, the average cost of living for a Syrian family of 5 has exceeded 2.8 million Syrian pounds according to Kassioun index. It is an unprecedented increase within a record period of time that threatens millions of Syrians who are witnessing a catastrophic gap between the costs of living and the minimum wage of Syrian workers, which remains at the threshold of 92,970 Syrian pounds (i.e., less than half of the cost of the minimum amount of food per working individual alone)! 

Eleven years after the crisis erupted in the country, its disastrous impacts have affected the entire society, and of course, children were the most vulnerable and fragile segment. The crisis and its repercussions have left millions of children in need, who are obliged to coercively engage in labor market to fill part of the huge gap between wages and the minimum of food and living costs. Meanwhile, the vast majority of these children live in unsuitable environments and consequences that threaten them with negative social impacts that may expand to a minimum of two generations.

Eleven years after the outbreak of the crisis in the country, humanitarian needs are still aggravating in Syria, given the long-term consequences of the wide spread destruction of infrastructure across the country. In addition to the acceleration of the economic downturn that began before the crisis erupted, and grew in frequency during it, causing Syria to become the country with the most internally displaced people in the world.

The Syrian healthcare sector is facing crises and chronic problems that are reflecting in the lack of the availability and quality of healthcare services across the country. Alongside the inability to determine the real effects of the spread of Coronavirus in the country, in absence of reliable government figures on cases and deaths, disruption in healthcare services and systems continues. This is not only because of the spread of the virus and the conditions of the Syrian crisis, but mainly because of the decline in government expenditure on healthcare sector, which continues to reduce constantly and rapidly.

The suffering of the country is exacerbating at all levels, and the crisis that has been going on for 11 years now is exacerbating the danger that is affecting the country at the level of agriculture and food security. In the previous issue of Kassioun, we have reviewed how the numbers of Syrians exposed to the risk of food insecurity have increased to about 13.9 million people, (12 million of them are already facing severe food insecurity, while 1.9 million are at risk of being food insecure). All this is in conjunction with the rise in local statements that are “promising us” with further decline in the field of agriculture and food, as the increase in prices has become a “global phenomenon” simultaneously with the global crisis of food and energy.

The repercussions of the government resolution to lift subsidies for specific strata of the Syrian people had not yet been stabilized, while indications began to increase about the whole process being nothing more than a first step towards completely lifting governmental subsidies. It happened very quickly in way that threatens the life of millions of Syrians with further deterioration and bad conditions.

There is a striking phenomenon in the Syrian statistics in recent years, which is: a large increase in the proportion of GDP devoted for investment. That is, a larger part of the income produced annually goes to local investment, while a smaller proportion goes to consumption, whether private consumption that household consumption constitutes most of it, or public consumption spent by the government.

There are a lot of statements about generating solar power under the suffocating electricity crisis. However, not even 25% of the daily needs of Syrians in their homes is secured, while entire regions in the country nearly get no electricity! Amidst the escalating electricity deterioration, the repeated talk about solar power perhaps reflects other investment and narrow aspects.

The Syrian economic situation is controlled by politics with all its details and daily events, and it is shackled with high obstaces that can not be surpassed through half solutions but only through a comprehensive political settlement which reconstitutes the country, brings its parts together, and ends the dispersal of its people. All politically and economically active powers in the Syrian situation are clearly aware of this fact, whether those who want to invest in the reconstruction of Syria and its future or those who invest in its destruction today! Those powers of “investment’ are waiting until the nature and potential of upcoming partnerships - according to their perspective - appear. At this current phase, none of them is seriously seeking to take any step except to the extent that prevents a complete collapse and allows remaining at the edge of the abyss.

Energy and Bread; there is perhaps nothing that intensifies the material and economic essentials of any social structure more than these two components. Bread is enough for survival, and energy is necessary for moving forward and for work. The abundance of these two components is the necessary and inadequate limit to guarantee economic, political, and social security. When the economic and political structure is “lenient” with bread and energy crises, then it is practically not looking for the essentials for survival or moving forward, and is indifferent about falling into the abyss.