Syrian president doubles public sector wages as national currency spirals downwards

Syria’s president doubles public sector wages and pensions as the war-torn country’s national currency spiraled further downwards, reaching a new low for the year.

President Bashar Assad issues the two decrees as the Syrian pound’s value against the US dollar declined to a new low since the beginning of 2023, down from 7,000 to 15,000 pounds to the greenback. At the start of the conflict in 2011, the dollar was trading at 47 pounds.

For over a year, Damascus has been restructuring its program of subsidies for gasoline, diesel for heating, and bread. At the launch of the restructure in February last year, Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous said the move to scale back fuel subsidies would allow the program to target the poorest families more effectively as well as reducing the Syrian state’s deficit.

Though wheat and bread subsidies have not been affected, the move has sparked rare protests in the country, as families struggle to cope with skyrocketing inflation. Syria hiked fuel prices today, soon after Assad’s decree, further rolling back state subsidies.