Syria will adopt an official unified exchange rate of 12,500 liras to the dollar, the central bank said in its first statement since the ouster of former President Bashar al-Assad.
Exchange companies in Damascus told Reuters late last week that the Syrian currency had already strengthened from 15,000 liras to the dollar in the final days of Assad’s rule.
Traders attributed the reason to the return of thousands of Syrians who had sought refuge abroad during the war and to the open use of dollars and Turkish lira in markets.
Previously, using foreign currencies in daily commercial transactions could lead to imprisonment, and many Syrians were afraid to even utter the word “dollar” in public.
The central bank set the exchange rate for the pound against several foreign currencies in a statement issued on Monday.
Reuters reported on Monday that the country’s gold reserves had not been touched during the 13-year war and the chaos that followed Assad’s flight to Russia.
More than 90% of Syrians live below the poverty line, according to U.N. agencies.
Syria’s economic crisis has been caused by years of conflict, Western sanctions and a currency crisis caused in part by the financial collapse in neighboring Lebanon and the Syrian government’s loss of oil-producing territory in the northeast.
Syria’s oil, manufacturing, tourism and other key sectors have been squeezed, and large segments of the population work in a dilapidated public sector where average monthly wages are around 300,000 Syrian liras.
Syria’s new government, chosen by the opposition after it seized Damascus on Dec. 8 in a lightning offensive that toppled 50 years of Assad family rule, says it will raise wages and prioritize improving services.
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