US sanctions forced Syria to stop all US dollar transactions

Share:

Syrians will have to tighten their belts if protests against President Bashar Al-Assad remain unabated and US and European sanctions bite, the country’s top banker told AFP in an interview.

“It will be more and more difficult because of sanctions and the events. We will have to tighten our belts,” said Adib Mayaleh, the governor of Syria’s Central Bank.

“The main hit has been to the tourism industry where revenues have fallen by 90 percent, and the ordinary citizen will suffer. Transport, imports, industry … all will be increasingly affected, and this will create unemployment and poverty.”

Mayaleh, 55, who holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Aix en Provence in southern France, has been the central bank head for six years.

“I say the opposite of Marie Antoinette who said that if the French have no bread they should eat cake. I think we will have to give up the cake to eat brown bread,” he said.

US sanctions had forced Syria to stop all transactions in US dollars since Tuesday, and the country had turned completely to euro deals, Mayaleh said.

“Since 2005 we have encouraged all economic sectors to conduct transactions in euros, but unfortunately many still used dollars,” he said.

“Now it is completely stopped. This is the first time in the history of the country.”

US President Barack Obama has called for the resignation of Assad and recently imposed tough sanctions against the regime in Damascus.

In an executive order last week he ordered the freezing of all Syrian state assets in the United States and forbade investment and exports to the country.

The order also targets Syria’s oil and gas sector, a key revenue stream for Assad’s regime, significantly ramping up pressure on Damascus to halt its assault on pro-democracy protests.

European Union governments too formally adopted new sanctions on Tuesday, but stopped short of concrete moves to impose a full oil embargo on Damascus.

Some 90 percent of Syrian crude oil is exported to the EU, where the main buyers are Denmark, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Austria and Spain, in that order.

“The sanctions punish all Syrians, especially the most vulnerable,” Mayaleh said. The US and EU “are talking through their hats when they say they don’t want to punish the people.

“They are the only ones who are affected, not the regime. The poorest are hit by rising prices caused by the embargoes.”

Mayaleh said Syria’s monetary reserves currently stand at $17.7 billion, or $800 million down from mid-March when the anti-Assad protest movement erupted.

“The exchange rate of the Syrian pound has remained more or less stable. This has been our main goal since the start of the crisis,” he said.

“The dollar is at 50.4 Syrian pounds on the parallel market, while the official rate is 47.69.”

He dismissed reports that Iran had transferred six billion dollars to support the Syrian pound.

“This is a joke. It’s ridiculous,” Mayaleh said.

Explaining the stability of the local currency, he said Syria had created two years ago “a fund for currency fluctuations and foreign exchange positions of banks.”

The fund stood at “around five billion dollars when the crisis started and we have spent two billion to protect our currency.”

He also said that some two billion dollars had been transferred out of Syria in the past five months.

As for bank deposits, “at the start of the crisis withdrawals hit 30 billion Syrian pounds ($600 million), but after two months 24 billion ($480 million) have returned to the bank, so there is a difference of six billion which is normal as people want to hold cash with them.”

Mayaleh finished by issuing a warning to Europe.

“We can solve our problems with the help of China. If the Europeans withdraw, the Chinese can easily take their place and fill the void. Russia may also aid us,” he said.

AFP

Share:

Comments

20 responses to “US sanctions forced Syria to stop all US dollar transactions”

  1. abusamir Avatar

    I love the Syrian when they are buried in shit, they claim it is roses. Enjoy ! time is not on their side and they know it. 

  2.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    I love the Syrian when they are buried in shit, they claim it is roses. Enjoy ! time is not on their side and they know it. 

  3. waw this is new  syrian knows what;s belt mean and you can tighten then the bastard the must stool them from lebanon this guy is foul of shit more then assad he said there will be more unemployment and poverty its like all of them well off and there is no unemployment now and the streets not full of shit wake up it syria you talking about and and lets hope you will not be able to find the brown bread and neither the white one and you will have a bad days coming ahead

  4. waw this is new  syrian knows what;s belt mean and you can tighten then the bastard the must stool them from lebanon this guy is foul of shit more then assad he said there will be more unemployment and poverty its like all of them well off and there is no unemployment now and the streets not full of shit wake up it syria you talking about and and lets hope you will not be able to find the brown bread and neither the white one and you will have a bad days coming ahead

  5. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    So we wait ’till they flood the country with Chinese tourists and cheap lead-filled plastic. Chinese being people with big smiles and either with no religion or Buddhists or Shinto – cameras clicking at everything that interests them – should make it interesting for the Syrians and open their minds maybe a little. And have you seen those Chinese ladies?? MMMmmm … 
      Wonder what the Yen trades for?  Will the tourists need to bring wheelbarrows, or is Assad printing 1-mil dollar notes? And we know prices only rise with common greed in a supply-vs-demand world. Maybe Assad should try the ‘Pol Pot’ solution and send eveyone out of cities and into the fields to grow rice.
    Oh … wait … I think he’s trying that now.

    1. Patience2 Avatar
      Patience2

      The yen is Japanese … a lot better if it were the Japanese than the Chinese for the Syrians.

      1. 5thDrawer Avatar
        5thDrawer

        (blush) Sorry cutie … yah … oh well, you got the idea anyway … 🙂

        1. I do believe without going and looking it’s the won?
          sent you a note on my comment,(not about Leo lol)Happy Friday

  6.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    So we wait ’till they flood the country with Chinese tourists and cheap lead-filled plastic. Chinese being people with big smiles and either with no religion or Buddhists or Shinto – cameras clicking at everything that interests them – should make it interesting for the Syrians and open their minds maybe a little. And have you seen those Chinese ladies?? MMMmmm … 
      Wonder what the Yen trades for?  Will the tourists need to bring wheelbarrows, or is Assad printing 1-mil dollar notes? And we know prices only rise with common greed in a supply-vs-demand world. Maybe Assad should try the ‘Pol Pot’ solution and send eveyone out of cities and into the fields to grow rice.
    Oh … wait … I think he’s trying that now.

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      The yen is Japanese … a lot better if it were the Japanese than the Chinese for the Syrians.

      1.  Avatar
        Anonymous

        (blush) Sorry cutie … yah … oh well, you got the idea anyway … 🙂

        1. I do believe without going and looking it’s the won?

  7. When the Syrians finally overthrow this homicidal madman (and they are well on the way to it:)), they will be in great shape because they will have done it themselves. For true freedom comes great sacrifice, and they are proving their mettle.. I commend their efforts greatly. Just do whats right when he falls that’s all the world asks..And trust me they may have to tighten the belts for a little while,but they will be greatly rewarded by the world when it happens..Turn all the monsters WMD’s over to the UN, and ditch the Iranian stoolies, and Ill bet you get a trillion dollar payday for it, Keep it up,your being watched by the free world,were waiting for you to come join us.

    5thDrawer..You really dont want the Chinese there..Look at Libya, them and Russia resisted all the way,now want to get some action..Too bad the council said nope….Ever watch South Park? Look for the episode
    Child Abduction Is Not Funny..Episode 90 I think,explains everything..You got a decent sized brain,you’ll understand

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      Friday was good thanks. 🙂 Made a note of the South Park thing .. will do research 😉

  8. When the Syrians finally overthrow this homicidal madman (and they are well on the way to it:)), they will be in great shape because they will have done it themselves. For true freedom comes great sacrifice, and they are proving their mettle.. I commend their efforts greatly. Just do whats right when he falls that’s all the world asks..And trust me they may have to tighten the belts for a little while,but they will be greatly rewarded by the world when it happens..Turn all the monsters WMD’s over to the UN, and ditch the Iranian stoolies, and Ill bet you get a trillion dollar payday for it, Keep it up,your being watched by the free world,were waiting for you to come join us.

    5thDrawer..You really dont want the Chinese there..Look at Libya, them and Russia resisted all the way,now want to get some action..Too bad the council said nope….Ever watch South Park? Look for the episode
    Child Abduction Is Not Funny..Episode 90 I think,explains everything..You got a decent sized brain,you’ll understand

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      Friday was good thanks. 🙂 Made a note of the South Park thing .. will do research 😉

  9. Wow, incredible weblog structure! How long have you ever been blogging for?
    you made blogging glance easy. The total look of your web site is magnificent, let alone the content material!
    You can see similar here sklep internetowy

  10. Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied
    on the video to make your point. You clearly know what youre
    talking about, why waste your intelligence on just posting videos to your
    site when you could be giving us something informative to read?
    I saw similar here: E-commerce

  11. hello there and thank you for your information – I’ve definitely picked up anything new
    from right here. I did however expertise several technical issues
    using this website, since I experienced to reload the website many times previous to I could get it to load correctly.
    I had been wondering if your web host is OK? Not that I am
    complaining, but sluggish loading instances times will often affect your placement in google and
    could damage your quality score if ads and marketing
    with Adwords. Well I’m adding this RSS to my e-mail and can look out for much
    more of your respective exciting content.
    Make sure you update this again soon. I saw similar here: Najlepszy sklep

  12. Very good blog you have here but I was wanting to know if you knew of any community forums that cover the same topics discussed here?
    I’d really love to be a part of online community where
    I can get feed-back from other experienced people that share
    the same interest. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.
    Many thanks! I saw similar here: Sklep internetowy

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *