Syrian president doubles public sector wages as national currency spirals downwards

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad has doubled public sector wages and pensions as the war-torn country’s national currency spiraled further downwards, reaching a new low for the year. The value of the Syrian pound against the US dollar has declined from 7,000 pounds in January to 15,000 pounds on Wednesday. At the start of the war, in 2011, a dollar was worth 47 Syrian pounds. For over a year, Damascus has been restructuring its program of subsidies for gasoline, diesel for heating, and bread. Syria hiked fuel prices Wednesday, soon after Assad’s decree, further rolling back state subsidies. The United Nations estimates that 90% of Syrians in government-held areas live in poverty,