On Tuesday, the exchange rate of the Syrian pound recorded a new record deterioration in the parallel market, reaching the threshold of four thousand against the dollar in a country where the conflict is entering its tenth year this month, according to Agence France-Presse merchants.

After ten years of war, Syria is experiencing a stifling economic crisis, which has been exacerbated recently by measures to address the Covid-19 epidemic. The accelerating economic collapse in neighboring Lebanon, where many Syrians, including businessmen, have deposited their money, also increased the situation in Syria.

The Lebanese pound on Tuesday also recorded an unprecedented decline, and the dollar exchange rate hit a threshold of ten thousand. On the black market.

Several Syrian merchants told AFP by phone that the Syrian pound has depreciated, and the exchange rate on the black market touched 4,000 pounds against the dollar for the first time since the conflict began.

Two websites specializing in monitoring the parallel market price reported that the exchange rate ranged between 3900 and 4000 Syrian pounds in Damascus.

One merchant, preferring not to be named, explained that “there is a great shortage in the dollar in market”. Another said, “It seems that the situation is completely related to what is happening in Lebanon.”

Since January, the Syrian pound has witnessed a new decline, and the exchange rate during the past weeks has ranged between three and 3500 pounds to the dollar, while the official exchange rate Approved by the Central Bank is equivalent to 1256 pounds against the dollar.

Since the start of the conflict in Syria in 2011, the exchange rate of the Syrian pound has deteriorated by nearly 99% on the black market.

Zaki Mahshi, an economist and researcher at Chatham House, told AFP, “What is happening in Lebanon affects the Syrian pound because Lebanon is one of the most important corridors linking the Syrian government to the foreign market.”

He pointed out. Another reason lies in the adoption of a new banknote for a denomination of five thousand pounds at a time when the country is witnessing a scarcity of hard currencies and no improvement in its economic activities.

Last November, the President of the Syrian regime, Bashar Al-Assad, said that ” The essence of the “economic problem in Syria today” is the money that the Syrians took and deposited in Lebanon, and when the banks in Lebanon were closed, we paid the price.

He considered that “the current crisis is not related.” By the siege, “referring to the economic sanctions imposed by Western countries on Syria for years.

Damascus has always considered those sanctions a major cause of the continuous deterioration in its economy.

Most of them live. Syrians today are below the poverty line, according to the United Nations, while commodity prices have doubled across the country over the past year. 12.4 million people suffer from food insecurity, according to the World Food Program.

The post The Syrian currency is down 99% to 4 thousand pounds against the dollar appeared first on World Weekly News.