DAMASCUS —
Syria’s pound hit a new low against the dollar on the
black market Tuesday, according to websites monitoring the exchange rate, in
the latest blow to the war-battered economy.
اضافة اعلان
The exchange rate reached more than 5,000 Syrian pounds to the US dollar
for the first time since the start of the conflict more than a decade ago, the
websites said.
Syria’s official exchange rate has stood at around 3,015 pounds to the
greenback since September — compared to 47 pounds to the dollar before the war.
The new unofficial rate means the currency is now worth almost 99 percent
less on the black market than the official rate before the start of the
conflict.
Syria’s economy has been battered by more than a decade of war and is
reeling from the knock-on effects of a financial crisis in neighboring Lebanon
that has stemmed the flow of dollars into government-held areas.
The collapse of
the pound has driven up the price of goods and aggravated hardship.
The vast majority of Syria’s population lives below the poverty line, the
UN says.
An estimated 12.4 million people — about 60 percent of Syria’s population
— suffer from food insecurity, according to the
UN World Food Program.
Syria’s civil war has killed nearly half a million people and forced
around half of the country’s pre-war population from their homes.
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