Syria – Downtown Aleppo. Government employee Mahmoud Al-Halabi (a pseudonym) is waiting for his turn inside one of the money transfer offices, in order to receive the amount of $200 sent to him by his expatriate brother in Sweden, as assistance to cover the expenses of the month of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr.
Al-Halabi confirms that the sums of money that his brother sends from time to time represent a major lifeline for him, enabling him to cover the costly expenses of daily life, especially since his monthly salary of 275,000 Syrian pounds (regarding 20 dollars) is not enough for a week’s expenses at best.
He told Al Jazeera Net that he intends to buy the necessary Ramadan Iftar table supplies, the purchase of which has now cost the Syrian citizen his entire monthly salary, in light of the continuous rise in prices and the loss of the Syrian pound more of its value.
Al-Halabi points out that his situation is a common situation, as many of his relatives and friends have become primarily dependent on financial remittances coming from Syrian expatriates around the world, following the war forced millions of them to emigrate outside the country.
Since the beginning of the month of Ramadan, financial remittances coming to Syrians have doubled, with an increase in family spending on food and drink, as well as some families buying Eid clothes for children in particular.
The owner of an unlicensed money exchange shop (who refused to reveal his name for security reasons) said that money transfers arriving through his office from outside the country to inside Syria have doubled by more than half since the beginning of Ramadan, suggesting that the flow of remittances will continue with the same momentum as Eid al-Fitr approaches.
He explained in an interview with Al Jazeera Net that the majority of remittances coming to Syria come from Turkey, Germany, Norway, the Emirates and Qatar, noting that the majority of their recipients are elderly people and people with limited income who are employees in the public and private sectors.
The owner of the exchange shop pointed out that the remittances that arrive in government-controlled areas are delivered in Syrian pounds, according to the daily exchange rate, due to decisions that criminalize dealing in anything other than the Syrian pound, refer those who deal in anything other than the Syrian pound to the judiciary, and impose financial fines on them.
There are no accurate figures for the volume of financial transfers arriving in Syria through individuals and humanitarian associations. Former Minister of Economy Lamia Assi had previously estimated that the total daily remittances received into areas under regime control amounted to regarding $6 million.
According to Assi’s interview with a local radio station, the value of what arrives annually is equivalent to two billion dollars annually, describing the process of the Central Bank of Syria raising the exchange rate for remittances as “a sound step on the right path.”
However, economic analyst Younis Al-Karim saw that there is a decrease in personal remittances arriving in Syria compared to previous years for a number of reasons, the most important of which is restricting their delivery through the Central Bank of Syria, the state of global inflation, the collapse of purchasing power, and the fluctuation of the refugee situation in general. He suggested that it no longer exceeds 300 thousand dollars. Daily.
Al-Karim said – in an interview with Al Jazeera Net – that the regime’s government was previously covering regarding 50% of the value of the import bill, through financial transfers coming to Syria, as this shortage is reflected on citizens through the loss of goods and the rise in prices of alternative goods in the markets.
He pointed to a decline in the value of people’s remittances coming to families in Syria, explaining that they decreased from $200 or $300 to $150, while some stopped sending these remittances.
The economic analyst confirmed that media sites exaggerated the volume of financial transfers arriving in Syria during the current month of Ramadan, pointing out that the regime continues to impose security restrictions on exchange companies on the black market, pursue the owners of the transfers, and set a ceiling for funds exceeding 5 million liras, even though it is an amount little.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees confirmed that an estimated 90% of the population in Syria lives in poverty, and that 12.9 million people suffer from food insecurity.
According to a statement by the United Nations on the first anniversary of the earthquake that struck northern Syria on February 6, 2023, 7.2 million people are internally displaced, and 16.7 million people are in need of assistance.
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2024-03-30 08:23:17
