Rising consumer product prices and successive shortages are hitting a Syrian population that has already been badly hit by 11 years of war.
With our correspondent in Beirut, Paul Khalifeh
The Syrian economy, already badly affected by 11 years of war and Western sanctions, is today suffering the repercussions of the war in Ukraine. Vegetable oil has disappeared from the shelves, the price of rice, sugar and other basic foodstuffs has exploded, fuel is severely rationed.
The UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry has sounded the alarm, as the conflict in Ukraine risks pushing more people into misery, in a country where 90% of the population lives below the poverty line. Twelve million people are food insecure and more than 14 million are in need of humanitarian assistance.
140% inflation since the beginning of 2022
Since the beginning of this year, inflation has reached 140%, and things are likely to get worse due to the war in Ukraine. The deterioration in living conditions is due to the explosion in import prices, especially since the wheat comes mainly from Ukraine or Russia.
It is also caused by the storage of basic foodstuffs by traders, which leads to many shortages. Faced with the crisis, the Syrian government decided to directly manage the warehouses of basic products and to ration the distribution of petroleum derivatives. Limited measures, which have proven in the past their inability to curb degradation.
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