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.
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Fresh produce on display at a market in Raqqa, northern Syria. More than three quarters of young Syrians say they struggle to afford food and basic necessities. AFP -
A buried tank next to the 'Free Woman' statue in the town of Kobani, Aleppo province, is a monument to 10 years of violence in Syria. AFP -
A shepherd in Kobani, northern Syria, follows his goats past rubble and a building destroyed in the country's civil war. AFP -
A boy stands next to a damaged house in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, also known as Ain Al Arab, in Aleppo province. AFP -
A man rides a horse and cart past damaged buildings in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa. AFP -
A man extracts metal from the rubble of destroyed buildings in Raqqa. AFP -
A child plays in a park in Raqqa, northern Syria. AFP -
Syrian rebel fighters for the National Liberation Front walk along a trench on the front line of a battle with regime forces in Idlib province. The conflict in Syria has been going on for 10 years. AFP -
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Syrians take part in an anti-government demonstration in Idlib city, north-west Syria. The message on the sign behind them says: "We shall continue our revolution as long as there are figs and olives." AFP -
Children at a displacement camp near the village of Qah, in Syria's north-western Idlib province. AFP -
A displacement camp near the village of Qah in Idlib province, near the Syrian-Turkish border. AFP -
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A displaced family from Abu Al Duhur in eastern Idlib have taken shelter in a building damaged in air strikes by the Syrian regime. AFP -
A displaced family from Abu Al Duhur, Idlib province, are living in building badly damaged during Syria's 10-year civil war. AFP -
A member of the Syrian Civil Defence, or White Helmets, cuts off a slab of concrete hanging from the roof of a building damaged during bombing by pro-government forces in Idlib province. AFP -
Children play outside a makeshift classroom, run by humanitarian group Syrian Relief, at the Haranbush displacement camp in Idlib province. AFP
