After fuel prices rose to record levels, followed by a severe shortage in supplies, many bakeries in regime-controlled areas in Syria were forced to stop working due to their inability to secure the fuel needed for the bread industry.
The crisis has intensified in the past few days, with the interruption of supply lines to the regime’s regions with crude oil derivatives, in conjunction with the intensification of the cold, which resulted in an increase in the need for oil derivatives inside the country.
There are no signs on the horizon to solve the living crises in the areas under the control of the regime. Rather, the currency crises and the decline in exchange rates to record levels are starting to show their consequences on the daily lives of citizens.
Most of the bakeries stopped working, which led to a shortage of bread and a significant increase in its prices, reaching 3,000 Syrian pounds (half a dollar) for a bundle containing 7 loaves, enough for two people per day.
While its price has risen to twice that number on the black market, while the average wage in Syria still does not exceed $20 per month, according to the current exchange rates.
The shortage of this basic material has caused severe crowding in front of some bakeries that operate one or two days a week, adding new suffering to the citizens in the areas of the regime who have been living for more than 10 consecutive years of economic crises.
Exacerbation of living crises
The most difficult of these crises has exacerbated during the past two years, as there is no horizon for the end of these crises, but rather the fears of their deepening more and more.
And last April, the Prime Minister of the regime, Hussein Arnous, stated that their oil needs are 200,000 barrels per day, but the daily production of the regime is 20,000.
Several regions also witnessed a significant shortage in the last wheat season, as pro-regime media quoted the Minister of Agriculture as saying that Syria's production of wheat this year amounted to 1.7 million tons, while the country needs 3.2 million tons.
Over the past months, the areas under the control of the Syrian regime have witnessed successive economic crises, starting with an acute shortage of fuel, leading to a drop in the price of the lira against the US dollar to record levels.
During the past year, the regime raised fuel prices more than once, the last of which was in mid-December 2020, when it raised the prices of oil derivatives between 15% and 22.5%.
In the absence of a horizon for a political solution in the country, observers expect that the economic crises will continue during the coming periods, unanimously unanimously that the biggest victim is the citizens whose purchasing power has decreased in an unprecedented way, as the average salaries and wages have reached less than 20 dollars per month.
At the beginning of this year, the Central Bank of Syria revealed - in a statement - that it had reduced the official exchange rate of the lira against the dollar to 4,522, while the black market rate used in most economic activities is about 6,500 lira, and the previous official price of the lira was 3,015 lira per dollar.