A few days before the start of Ramadan, lines of people served on the stairs outside a bank in the capital of Syria, Damascus, while waiting for hours to withdraw the equivalent of around $ 15 for the necessary vacation purchases.
The new government has imposed serious daily withdrawal limits of this amount in Syrian banks, mitigating what would generally be a festive period, because many have trouble buying even the bases of the month of sacred fasting.
“It can perhaps buy a kilo and a half of meat,” said Sleiman Dawoud, a 56-year-old civilian engineer among those waiting in the ATM line to remove these $ 15,000 in Syrian books. “But what about bread, vegetables and fruit?” Ramadan arrives and we have to spend. »»
Ra’if Ghnaim, 75, a retired official, worried about how he would give children small sums of money at the end of Ramadan while he was waiting to withdraw money.
“How are we going to celebrate and give gifts to children?” He asked.
This year, Ramadan fell three months after the eviction of the Assad dictatorship which first ruled Syria with an iron for more than five decades. The rebellious coalition that took over the government in Damascus has established several economic changes.
It opened the market to imported products. He eliminated bread subsidies – which makes staple food 10 times more expensive. He dismissed thousands of public sector employees. And he ran the cash withdrawals to automatic ticket distributors
The prices of many goods other that bread has dropped since the new government has taken over, but many Syrians cannot still buy them due to the limits for the withdrawal of a cash saving where the general use of credit cards and electronic payments has never taken root.
Making money has become a kind of part -time job because Syrians spend hours or even days, trying to withdraw enough money to live, and even less for follies during a period of major family and holiday meetings.
While Syrian books have dried up and the government began to change economic policy, the currency began to strengthen after more than a decade of weakening.
Before the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the exchange rate was around 50 Syrian pounds in the US dollar. When the government was overthrown in December, it was around 15,000, but has since fallen.
The Syrian Central Bank, the Ministry of the Economy and the Ministry of the Interior did not answer questions.
The central bank alluded to the withdrawal limits in a December press release, saying that the measures would be temporary. But they have now lasted months.
This month, a newly struck Syrian book board has arrived from Russia, where they are printed, according to the state media. The amount was not made public.
“They don’t have enough banknotes. They have a liquidity crisis, “said Karam Shaar, political economist and principal researcher at the New Lines Institute, a Washington -based reflection group, who met with Syrian officials.
“The current monetary policy that the Central Bank is considering is not finalized, and it does not seem to be consistent,” he added.
According to the United Nations, more than 90% of Syrians live in poverty, and one in four is unemployed. And in the field, and in long banking lines across the country, many suffer.
“We will have to cancel the Suhoor,” said Mahmoud Embarak, a 60 -year -old retired military officer, about the meal before dawn that Muslims eat before the start of the day.
He said the new government had recently cut his pension and that his family was now living in his wife’s nursing pension.
“It will not be as happy with an era as in the past,” added Mr. Embarak.
Ahlam Kasem, 45, created at the mention of Ramadan.
She was waiting in the banking line to withdraw 200,000 Syrian pounds (approximately $ 15) from her monthly salary of 380,000 (around $ 28) as a civil engineer at the Ministry of Agriculture.
“They told us that the government had no money, the central bank does not have, the banks do not have,” she said. “We have so many questions and there are no answers.”
Thus, with her husband, she took a minibus from their city of Saboora, about 10 miles away, and paid 10,000 Syrian pounds each to go to an automatic counter at the Damascus bank.
She will have to make another trip another day to withdraw the rest of her salary.
This will still not buy much for his family of five people – even less so that large gatherings break the rapid characteristic of Ramadan.
“There will be no dinners or anything,” said Kasem, who is one of the many officials who have been dismissed with a dismissal of three months’ salary.
While she was talking, a man hit the bank’s metal door, trying to attract an employee’s attention inside. No one came.
“We have now pointed out to Syria where even a cup of coffee is perhaps too much a difficulty in offering you,” she said. “We are very social people, but we have come to the point where we do not want to visit anyone so as not to put pressure on themselves for a cup of coffee, even less lunch or dinner.”
These concerns were at the top of the BAB SRAIJEH market, an animated group of stores and street vendors along a paved street in the old town of Damascus. The noise of motorcycles occasionally crossing the competing offers that the sellers shouted.
“Ten, ten, almost free,” shouted a young man several times, offering a kilogram of olives for 10,000 pounds, less than a dollar.
In a small store selling Ramadan decorations – wooden crescent moons, colorful lanterns and string lamps – it was especially silent. Occasionally, someone learned about the price of an ornament, then left without buying anything.
“People have no money,” said Nour Al-Hamwi, 37, who helped her husband at the store. “Banks have no money, Syria has no money.”
Last year, the items stole shelves, said her husband. Now people buy only necessities.
“The Ramadan atmosphere will be weaker this year,” said Anwar Hamid.
Fatima Hussain Ali, 56, and her husband, Ha’il Ali Jasser, 59, each transported several bags of grocery store stuffed with spices, cheese and flour while they were heading on the market.
The Ramadan staples – olive, petroleum, rice, Bulgur wheat – are cheaper than before the eviction of President Bashar al -Assad. But the couple, who have eight children, still bought much less than in the previous Ramadans.
“The prices are cheaper, but there is no money,” she said.
With the exception of bread, which went from 400 pounds to 4,000 pounds.
She doubted that they would organize dinners this year. If they did, she joked, they may have to ask their guests in Byob: bring your own bread.
