Syria receives a new shipment of local currency printed in Russia economy

A government official told Reuters that Syria received a new shipment of local currency printed in Russia with expectations that more of these shipments will reach the future, in a new indication of improving relations between Moscow and the new rulers of Syria.

Another informed source said that the money arrived in a plane to Damascus airport yesterday, Wednesday, and was transferred by a procession from several trucks to the Central Bank of Syria.

Syria, under the ousted regime, began paying money to Russia to print its currency in accordance with millions of dollars in the Syrian war, which lasted 13 years, after the annulment of a former contract between Damascus and a company affiliated with the Austrian Central Bank due to European sanctions.

It was not yet clear whether the arrangement continues with the same conditions with the new Syrian administration. A source familiar with the contract said it was.

Russia supported Bashar al -Assad during the war and fulfilled the conflict in his favor by bombing the revolution factions. But Moscow quickly moved to maintain its relations with Damascus in the weeks that Assad’s flight was fled to keep two major military bases on the Syrian coast.

A senior Russian diplomat visited Damascus in January, and Syrian President Ahmed Al -Sharaa made a phone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 12. Syria later received the first shipment of the local currency printed in Russia. The Central Bank of Syria announced at the time the arrival of 300 billion Syrian pounds today, Friday, from Russia through Damascus International Airport.

And currency charges are very important for Syria. The country’s war, the war, has declined more in the past few months due to a lack of currency, which is attributed by Syrian officials, for reasons, including the delay in currency shipments from Russia.

A former senior Syrian official said that the currency shipments from Russia were reaching Damascus every month with hundreds of billions of lira (tens of millions of dollars).

The amount that arrived on Wednesday was not known in the second shipment of its kind since the overthrow of Assad on December 8.

Liquidity

Dishes in Syria finds it difficult to dismiss their savings due to the monetary crisis, and pressure on local companies that are already suffering from new competition has increased from cheap imports after the country’s new rulers opened the economy that has limited import with protectionist policies.

Economists and analysts say that the lack of liquidity in Syria is the main reason behind the high value of the currency on the black market in the months that followed the fall of Assad, and it also helped to flow visitors from abroad and end the strict controls imposed on trade in foreign currencies.

The lira was circulated on the black market today, Thursday, at about 10,000 against the dollar, compared to the price of the official central bank of 13,000 pounds.

It was circulated at about 15,000 against the dollar before the lion was overthrown.

The Syrian Central Bank Governorate, Maysa Sabreen, told Reuters in January that it wanted to avoid printing the lira to reduce inflation.

Sources indicated earlier that foreign exchange reserves at the Central Bank amount to only about 200 million dollars, in a sharp decrease from $ 18.5 billion, the International Monetary Fund estimated that the bank had in 2010 a year before the outbreak of the war.

The sources stated that the central bank also has about 26 tons of gold, the same amount it had before the war.