1/5/2025–|Last updated: 1/5/202507:12 PM (Mecca time)
Syrian Finance Minister Muhammad Abazid said on Sunday that the government will increase the salaries of many public sector employees by 400% next month after completing the administrative restructuring of the ministries to enhance efficiency and accountability.
The cost of the salary increase is estimated at about 1.65 trillion Syrian pounds ($127 million) and will be financed from the current state treasury, regional aid, new investments, and efforts aimed at unfreezing Syrian assets currently located abroad.
The minister told Reuters that this is “the first step towards an emergency solution to the economic reality in Syria,” adding that the salaries of public sector employees for that month will be paid this week.
At the end of last month, the Caretaker Minister of Economy, Basil Abdel Hanan, told Al Jazeera Net that his government faces huge challenges after the previous regime left a collapsed state in all sectors, especially the economic sector, in all fields that are considered the basis for building the state and its strength.
He added that the extent of corruption left behind by the ousted regime was much greater than expected, in addition to administrative laxity with disguised unemployment and new legislation and systems that legalized corruption, “Therefore, we are in the stage of evaluating the reality and restructuring the existing economic institutions.”
He pointed out that “the restructuring of the economy will be to transform the economy, which was based on socialism and then turned into a totalitarian, corrupt dictatorship, into a free, open market economy, and this restructuring is necessary to achieve the transition.”
On the ground today, the lira rose to the level of 13,000 against the dollar for purchase from 13,500 recorded since the end of last month, while the selling price improved and reached 13,130, up from 13,635, according to Central Bank data.
Experts agree that although the 400% increase in salaries is a positive step, it will not be enough to meet the needs of millions of Syrians who live below the poverty line.
Firas Shaabo, a former professor at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Aleppo, said – in a previous statement to Al Jazeera Net – that the decision to increase salaries has positives and negatives, but it must be taken. “The people are exhausted and the employee’s salary does not exceed $10 in some cases, so this increase will not make a big difference.” But it will contribute, in one way or another, to improving consumption and stimulating the purchasing power of citizens temporarily.”
