A general scene from Al-Harika Market in the Syrian capital, Damascus (Al-Jazeera - Archive)

"I feel very disappointed when I find myself unable to meet my family's food needs." The speech is by Salim, a Syrian employee in the government sector and the breadwinner of a family of four people.

Salim receives a monthly salary of 300,000 Syrian pounds, or about 22 dollars, according to the local exchange rate, an amount that does not cover the expenses of more than two days for him only.

This deterioration in living is linked to the comprehensive collapse that the country is suffering due to the war and its repercussions on public life, which led to the drying up of the sources of the economy and the cessation of production.

Last February, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued two decrees to pay a 50% increase in salaries and wages for workers and employees in the public sector.

According to this increase, the minimum wage rose to 280 thousand liras, or 19 dollars, according to the Minister of Finance in the Syrian government, Kenan Yaghi.

Disastrous economic numbers

Reports on market movement denied that the aforementioned increase had any impact on the level and volume of spending, with the value of the lira continuing to deteriorate and losing about 130% of its value, at the beginning of the current year, against the foreign exchange rate.

According to the Trading Economy website, the inflation rate rose during the last quarter of last year to 150%, while the purchasing power index reached a very low level of 4.21%, followed by a decline in the index measuring the quality of life in general to zero, according to the database. Numbeo" to measure the quality of life in countries around the world.

In addition to the population suffering from their poor financial situation in the cities and areas controlled by the regime, families in opposition-controlled areas in the north of the country live in a state of poverty and hunger, and their tables lack basic food sources that would help them survive, as a result of the reduction in the amount of international aid that was provided. Covers part of their living costs.

The current average salaries and wages cover only 7% of the cost of the monthly food ration for basic items, after their prices rose by 100% for bread, from 55% to 80% for vegetables, and from 10% to 38% for white meat, and the price of a kilogram of lamb reached To 285 thousand liras (equivalent to the value of a month’s salary for a government employee), an increase of 18% over last month, according to the “Business 2 Business” index of commodity prices in Syria.

In a simple comparison between meat prices and the minimum wage, a worker from the lowest bracket in the government sector will need, on average, 140 working hours to secure a kilogram of red meat, and 80 working hours to buy a grilled chicken.

Professor of Economics at the University of Damascus, Dr. Shafiq Arabsh, points out that limiting a family of 5 to a light meal (beans, hummus) or a “labneh or cheese sandwich” for each member would cost it about two and a half million dollars a month (“180 dollars”). The minimum cost for a regular breakfast is 300,000 liras ($22), which means about 9 million liras per month ($650).

Shrinkage and dysfunction

The Syrian economy has been suffering from contraction and dysfunction since 2005, when it witnessed the beginning of its transformation from a directed economy to a social market economy.

Analysts agree that the shock caused by this transformation, as a result of the absence of effective protection systems and safety nets, later paved the way for the war bill to drain the country’s economy, causing it serious damage that reached, according to estimates by the Institute of Economics and Peace, 300%, citing the rise in the volume of military spending to About 49%, which is approximately half the size of the economies of some Middle Eastern countries, and the level of spending on internal security rose to 23%.

This situation changed the identity of the Syrian economy and turned it into an “oligarchy economy” benefiting an influential group, which found in its alliance with the authorities an avenue to monopolize market inputs.

The gap between income and spending increases the pressures faced by more than a million families in government-controlled areas, as their members live below the global poverty line ($1.9 per day), compared to rising families enriched by the war, competing to maximize their financial solvency and increase their spending on luxury goods. The quality of food you consume.

According to some independent estimates, the weak class in Syrian society constitutes 92%, while the class that benefits from the proceeds of its economic alliances with the authority constitutes approximately 6% to 8%, and the latter consists of approximately 375 thousand families.

The beneficiary class spends many times what the 1.5 million families currently spend, if we rely on what has been suggested by government sources that the number of Syrian families is about 3 million families, half of which are outside the country.

In mid-June, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that 9 out of 10 Syrians live below the poverty line. He said that more than 15 million Syrians, or 70% of the total population, need humanitarian aid.

This came in a speech addressed by Guterres at the seventh annual Brussels conference to support the future of Syria and the region, organized by the European Union.

Search for alternatives

Vulnerable families try to live their lives out of the will to survive, in light of the economic and social marginalization they face, and lack protection and community safety nets.

The prevalence of poverty and hunger affected most members of society during the period between 2011-2024, forcing them to search for alternative sources of income to meet their minimum basic needs.

In addition to their jobs in the public sector, most members of these families also work in the private sector, and some of them use external remittances sent by relatives residing abroad.

On the other hand, to escape poverty, the cities of the Syrian coast, like other inland cities, are witnessing an increasing movement of irregular migration of their citizens towards the shores of Europe, and Tartous Beach is considered a favorite point for those working in irregular migration, due to its proximity to the targeted areas.

According to the Cypriot newspaper Philly News, one out of every two irregular migrants who arrived in Cyprus this year came from Syria.

Engineer Ali, a resident of Latakia, attributed the increase in immigration to the need of young people to build their future, away from the conditions of war and the fragility of the living situation inside Syria.

He pointed out that the income from work in the government and private sectors is now spent on daily transportation wages only after they rose due to the rise in oil and energy prices in general.

Thus, the gap between the rich and poor classes of society increased significantly in light of an unprecedented collapse in living conditions, and it became clear that the war that had lasted more than 13 years had enabled new economic elites to control vital centers in the public services sector and most of the country’s imports of basic materials that... Demand for it has increased.

Source: Al Jazeera + websites