Syrians struggle with soaring prices as cost-of-living crisis challenges post-Assad recovery

Last month, protests erupted in squares and streets across Syria. Angry at the government's decision to raise fuel prices again, people burned tyres, blocked roads and chanted slogans. It was the largest show of discontent since President Ahmed al-Sharaa came to power two years ago.

Speaking on a Syrian TV channel, one man said he still supported the authorities but his situation had deteriorated to the point where he could no longer afford to buy bread. Another said people had begun to fear what new decision each morning would bring.

Days later, amid calls for further demonstrations, the fuel price increase was revoked. But it was the latest in a series of measures people blame for a growing cost-of-living crisis.

For many Syrians, life financially has worsened since rebels led by Sharaa ousted President Bashar al-Assad, ending five decades of his family's rule and more than 13 years of devastating civil war.

Catapulted to the presidency, Sharaa has since led Syria's transition and efforts to revive a broken economy. But as Syrians celebrated Assad's overthrow and their new freedoms, they hoped things would quickly improve — and that, however, has not materialised, frustrating many over the handling of the economy.

In a suburb of Damascus, Fatima Saleh Eid, 50, who works as a cleaner to help support her family, was doing her weekly shop at an open-air market. She said her family eats more sparingly now and no longer buys chicken once a week. Her husband had recently been hired by a ceramic factory after a year unemployed.

Around a dozen people of all ages gathered as she spoke, and nobody disagreed. One elderly man said he had stopped eating meat. Another, in his 20s, said his family could no longer afford the medicine for his father, who has a heart condition. One young woman said she and her four children could only afford a proper meal every two days.

Since coming to power, the government has slashed long-held subsidies as part of an austerity drive. The price of bread, a Syrian staple, has increased tenfold. Fuel prices are now in line with the international average, putting pressure on farmers and making transport more expensive, while electricity costs have gone up several hundred per cent for some.

The authorities have adjusted public sector wages, including pensions, in response. But the effect of the additional pay has been lost as prices keep rising.

Marwan Bashour, a 68-year-old pensioner, said his monthly pay was around $90, the public sector minimum wage, and that it was not enough at all. Sometimes he borrows money, sometimes he sells things from his house — an old pot or plates that were never used, gifts that were given to them — and he has even had to sell furniture.

The United Nations Development Programme said 90% of Syrians were in poverty last year. Like many Syrians, Marwan used to rely on help from aid agencies, but for him that has stopped, as organisations have been forced to cut back services because of funding cuts.

Nabil al-Remhein, 63, is another pensioner; none of his four adult children could find work. He said his family now has only one meal a day, calling it tragic, and said it was not only him — the entire population was hungry and suffocating under rising costs.

His wife does her chores in the dark, afraid of the electricity bill. Nabil said they had cut back on lighting the house and turn off the fridge for about five hours a day. Still, their latest bill was about a third of the family's income, and he has not paid it.

Dr Haid Haid, a Syrian columnist and consulting fellow at the London-based think tank Chatham House, said a significant portion of the population was worse off than before Assad's fall. He said the economic crisis was one of the most dangerous issues for the government, and that some of it was of its own making — partly a lack of financial resources and the legacy of the former regime, and partly the direct impact of new policies moving Syria towards a liberal, free-market economy without taking into account the impact on people.

A spokesman for the Syrian economy and industry ministry said no one was available for an interview.

Sharaa has also scored important gains. International sanctions imposed in the Assad era have been lifted, and the United States has removed the country from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. Security remains volatile, but the country feels more stable, and earlier this year the president retook the resource-rich north-east from a Kurdish-led militia.

But real economic recovery is yet to happen. Large parts of Syria remain in ruins after a war that killed half a million people and displaced half of the population. Unable to afford rent, many families live in partially destroyed buildings. The World Bank says reconstruction costs are estimated at $216bn, and without foreign help and investment it will be impossible for Syrians to rebuild.

Samir Aita, a Syrian economist who heads the Paris-based Circle of Arab Economists, said the crisis was a combination of policies, with the government not managing expectations and creating unrealistic hopes. Asked about the future, he said the situation was unsustainable and that if they did not change, he feared chaos.

Cab driver Abu Mahmoud, however, said the government had inherited a bankrupt country, so people needed to be patient, because things do not happen overnight.