2023-07-07 18:04:45
The prices of commodities in the markets of Damascus increased significantly, which sparked a state of controversy regarding the real value of the Syrian pound against foreign currencies.
Loyal economic sources acknowledged that the rate of the new increase in prices is not commensurate with the exchange rate in the parallel market, which means that the actual value of the pound has exceeded the barrier of 10,000 against the dollar, while it is trading at about 9,500 Syrian pounds to the dollar.
According to information obtained by Al-Modon from Damascus, the price of the dollar adopted in sales between merchants amounts to 11,000 Syrian pounds, a price that exceeds the black market price by about 1,500 per dollar.
One of the Damascus merchants attributed the pricing of the dollar at a higher value than the market price to the difficulty of compensating the dollar, the rampant inflation and the continuous decline in the value of the lira, explaining that “merchants are trying to avoid losses until the end of the sale procedures, i.e. the arrest in the Syrian pound.”
He assured Al-Modon that the recent policies of the Central Bank of Syria have sparked a state of confusion, specifically the continuous devaluation of the lira (remittance dollars), noting that “there is a state of uncertainty about the ability of monetary policies to reverse the dollar’s downward trend, despite the slight improvement in The performance of the lira Thursday.
On Thursday, the Central Bank of Syria raised the price of the remittance dollar in the Remittance and Exchange Bulletin to 8,500, after raising it on Wednesday to 8,400 Syrian pounds.
Economic researcher Younes al-Karim told Al-Modon that it is usual for the dollar to be priced by merchants in regime-held areas at a price higher than the official and parallel market price, due to the lack of dollars in the required quantities, and the impossibility of compensating sales at the same price in dollars and, of course, the Syrian pound.
He expressed his belief that the current price of the dollar among merchants exceeds 11,000 Syrian pounds, noting that “all previous data confirm that merchants in Syria trade dollars at sales, with an increase ranging between 10-20 percent over the black market price.”
This is confirmed by the fact that the sale of “imported” goods in Syria – compared to the dollar – is higher than in neighboring countries, which means that the purchasing value of the lira is less than the price traded against foreign currencies.
The dollar had made leaps against the pound since the end of the Eid al-Adha holiday, until the dollar almost touched the threshold of 10,000 pounds, but the pound recorded some slight improvement in Thursday’s dealings, rising by 50 Syrian pounds against the dollar (9400 buying – 9500 selling).
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