Poverty Strikes 14.5 Million Syrians in their Country

Despite the improvement in weather conditions, agricultural production in Syria declined due to the displacement of farmers (Syrian Agricultural Media Account)
Despite the improvement in weather conditions, agricultural production in Syria declined due to the displacement of farmers (Syrian Agricultural Media Account)
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Poverty Strikes 14.5 Million Syrians in their Country

Despite the improvement in weather conditions, agricultural production in Syria declined due to the displacement of farmers (Syrian Agricultural Media Account)
Despite the improvement in weather conditions, agricultural production in Syria declined due to the displacement of farmers (Syrian Agricultural Media Account)

Two recent World Bank reports show that the poverty belt in Syria currently includes about 69 percent of the population, or about 14.5 million Syrian citizens.

For more than 10 years, Syria has been mired in conflict, leading to widespread devastation and humanitarian crises. The situation has worsened with the recent external shocks, as the two reports pointed to the continued lack of funding and limited humanitarian aid, which further depleted families’ ability to secure their basic needs, amid rising prices, a decline in basic services, and an increase in unemployment rates.

The Regional Director of the Middle East Department at the World Bank, Jean-Christophe Carret, said Syria witnessed multiple and overlapping shocks last year, more than a decade after the start of the bloodiest conflict of this century.

The economic situation in Syria continued to deteriorate in 2023, according to the updated monitor of the World Bank, a copy of which was obtained by Asharq Al-Awsat, as economic activity maintained its decline, and the value of the Syrian pound dropped significantly by 141 percent against the US dollar. At the same time, estimates indicate that consumer price inflation rose by 93 percent, due to the reduction in subsidies provided by the government.

Amid the economic slowdown, which is partly caused by the damage to infrastructure due to earthquakes and conflicts, public finance revenues continue to drop, prompting the authorities to further reduce spending, while tightly adjusting support programs.

Although agricultural production had improved due to better weather conditions over the previous year, the conflict severely affected the agricultural sector, with massive displacement of farmers and widespread damage to infrastructure and irrigation networks, leading to a decline in yields.

Conflict-related unrest has also severely affected foreign trade, and the collapse of domestic industrial and agricultural production has amplified Syria’s dependence on imports.

The Spring 2024 issue of the Syrian Economic Monitor expects the economic contraction to continue, as a result of the real GDP being exposed to an unprecedented state of uncertainty, leading to its decline by 1.5 percent during the current year.

A special section, which is focused on the main findings of the Syrian Household Well-Being Report, indicates that in 2022, poverty affected 69 percent of the population, or about 14.5 million Syrians.

Although extreme poverty did not actually exist before the outbreak of the conflict, it affected more than one in every 4 Syrians in 2022, and may have worsened due to the devastating effects of the earthquake in February 2023 and other several external factors, especially Lebanon’s financial crisis in 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the war in Ukraine.



Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
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Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said he will nominate prominent investor Scott Bessent as US Treasury secretary, a key cabinet position with vast influence over economic, regulatory and international affairs.

"I am most pleased to nominate Scott Bessent to serve as the 79th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States," Trump said in a statement released on Truth Social. "Scott is widely respected as one of the world's foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists."

Wall Street has been closely watching who Trump will pick, especially given his plans to remake global trade through tariffs and extend and potentially expand the raft of tax cuts enacted during his first term, Reuters reported
The choice came after days of deliberations by Trump as he sorted through a shifting list of candidates. Bessent spent day after day at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida providing economic advice, sources said, a proximity to the president-elect that may have helped him prevail.
Other names that had been floated included Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Marc Rowan and former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh. Investor John Paulson had also been a leading candidate, but dropped out, while Wall Street veteran Howard Lutnick, another contender, was appointed as head of the Commerce Department.
Bessent, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production, as noted in a recent opinion piece he wrote for The Wall Street Journal.
The market's surge after Trump's election victory, he wrote, signaled investor expectations of "higher growth, lower volatility and inflation, and a revitalized economy for all Americans."
"Bessent has been on the side of less aggressive tariffs," said Oxford Economics' Ryan Sweet, adding that picking him makes the steep tariffs Trump proposed on the campaign trail less likely.
Bessent follows other financial luminaries who have taken the job, including former Goldman Sachs executives Robert Rubin, Hank Paulson and Steven Mnuchin, Trump's first Treasury chief. Janet Yellen, the current secretary and first woman in the job, previously chaired the Federal Reserve and White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, Bessent's home state, said in a statement: "President Trump's economic agenda is in good hands with Scott Bessent. I look forward to working closely with Scott and President Trump to lower inflation and create the golden age of prosperity for the American people."