page_title: Economy of Syria
hierarchical_section_title: Economy of Syria
caption_attribution_description: العربية: منظر عام لمدينة دمشق من جبل قاسيون English: General view of the City of Damascus from Mount Qasion. Deutsch: Allgemeine Ansicht der Stadt Damaskus vom Berg Qasioun.
context_page_description: Syria's economic history has been turbulent, and has deteriorated considerably since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War. The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party came to power in 1963, and adopted socialist policies involving nationalizations and land reform. After General Hafez al-Assad took power in 1970, restrictions on private enterprise were relaxed, though a substantial part of the economy was still under government control. By the 1980s, Syria was politically and economically isolated, and in the midst of a deep economic crisis. Real per capita GDP fell 22% between 1982 and 1989. In 1990, the Assad government instituted a series of economic reforms, although the economy remained highly regulated. The Syrian economy experienced strong growth throughout the 1990s, and into the 2000s. Syria's per capita GDP was US$4,058 in 2010. There is no authoritative GDP data available after 2012, due to Syria's civil war.
  Before the civil war the two main pillars of the Syrian economy were agriculture and oil, which together accounted for about one-half of GDP. Agriculture, for instance, accounted for about 26% of GDP and employed 25% of the total labor force.
context_section_description: Syria's economic history has been turbulent, and has deteriorated considerably since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War. The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party came to power in 1963, and adopted socialist policies involving nationalizations and land reform. After General Hafez al-Assad took power in 1970, restrictions on private enterprise were relaxed, though a substantial part of the economy was still under government control. By the 1980s, Syria was politically and economically isolated, and in the midst of a deep economic crisis. Real per capita GDP fell 22% between 1982 and 1989. In 1990, the Assad government instituted a series of economic reforms, although the economy remained highly regulated. The Syrian economy experienced strong growth throughout the 1990s, and into the 2000s. Syria's per capita GDP was US$4,058 in 2010. There is no authoritative GDP data available after 2012, due to Syria's civil war.
  Before the civil war the two main pillars of the Syrian economy were agriculture and oil, which together accounted for about one-half of GDP. Agriculture, for instance, accounted for about 26% of GDP and employed 25% of the total labor force. However, poor climatic conditions and severe drought badly affected the agricultural sector, reducing its share in the economy to about 17% of 2008 GDP, down from 20.4% in 2007, according to preliminary data from the Central Bureau of Statistics. On the other hand, higher crude oil prices countered declining oil production and led to higher budgetary and export receipts.
  Since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, the Syrian economy has been hit by massive economic sanctions restricting trade with the Arab League, Australia, Canada, the European Union, (as well as the European countries of Albania, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, and Switzerland) Georgia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. Sanctions against Syria were further extended by the US Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act that came into force in June 2020.
  The sanctions, destruction and dislocation associated with the Civil War have devastated Syria's economy. By the end of 2013, the UN estimated total economic damage from the Syrian Civil War at $143 billion. The total economic loss from the Syrian Civil War will reach $237 billion by the end of 2015, according to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, with the Syrian opposition's capture of Nasib border crossing costing the government a further $500–$700 million a year on top of this. In 2018, the World Bank estimated that about one-third of Syria's housing stock and one half of its health and education facilities have been destroyed by the conflict. According to the World Bank, a cumulative total of $226 billion in GDP was lost due to the conflict from 2011 to 2016.
  The Syrian economy suffered from conflict-related hyperinflation. The Syrian annual inflation rate is one of the highest in the world. The national currency, the Syrian pound, tumbled in mid-2020 against the US dollar. The pound, which traded at 47 pounds to the dollar before the 2011 uprising, plunged to over 3000 to the dollar. Prices of basic goods have skyrocketed and some staples have disappeared from the market as merchants and the public struggled to keep up with the rising cost of living.
caption: Damascus
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