'No delays' as Syria prepares to launch new currency

Central Bank governor says plan is progressing and two zeroes will be removed from the pound

Syrian pounds in a money exchange shop in Damascus. Syria plans to issue new bank notes and eliminate two zeroes from its currency. Getty Images

Syria is moving ahead with its plans to issue a new national currency with no delays in implementation, its central bank chief said.

Details about the launch of the currency change will be announced through an official press conference, Abdulkader Husrieh, Governor of the Central Bank of Syria, said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

“The arrangements for the currency change are proceeding in a good way and according to the set plans and with direct co-operation from all the relevant entities,” he said in the post. “There is no delay to what we have planned.”

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Mr Husrieh also urged the public to only rely on official announcements and that news attributed to unofficial sources is inaccurate.

His comments come after Syria said this year that it will issue new bank notes and eliminate two zeroes from its currency. The move, which will revalue the pound, is expected to help simplify transactions but will not strengthen the currency amid weak economic growth and high inflation, analysts have said.

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“We are working on the currency change process to be smooth to … ease people's lives and to bolster the confidence of investors and businesses in our national currency,” Mr Husrieh said.

The Syrian economy has been damaged by years of civil war, with the UN's Development Programme estimating cumulative losses – including physical damage and economic deprivation – at more $923 billion at the end of last year.

Following an economic contraction of 1.5 per cent in 2024, Syria’s gross domestic product is expected to grow by 1 per cent in 2025, according to the World Bank. It cited continued security challenges, liquidity constraints and suspended foreign assistance.

The Syrian pound has lost most of its value since the war in 2011, with the exchange rate now at around 11,000 pounds to the US dollar, compared with 50 pounds to the dollar before the conflict.

Mr Husrieh told the Reuters Next conference this month that Syria plans to launch the new currency in eight note denominations and confirmed plans to remove two zeroes from them in an effort to restore confidence in the pound.

He said Syria would end seven decades of central bank financing of its government budget deficits, and restore confidence in public finances and central bank management, Reuters reported.

“The new currency will be a signal and symbol for this financial liberation,” Mr Husrieh said.

Syria's central bank this month signed an agreement with payments company Visa to restart operations there after more than a decade.

“We are working to have a fully finished payment system in which we have global partners because … our vision is to have Syria as hub – a financial hub – for the Levant,” Mr Husrieh told the Reuters event.

In November, Syria resumed international financial communications through the Swift network after a 14-year suspension caused by sanctions on the Assad regime.

Mr Husrieh sent the first messages to correspondent banks worldwide, including the US Federal Reserve in New York, marking Syria’s re-entry into the global banking system, Syrian news agency Sana reported