Syrian pound recovers from crisis

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(Xinhua) 08:38, September 30, 2013

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DAMASCUS, Sept. 29 -- The Syrian pound has bounced back after a long period of deterioration as the military option to address the crisis is losing ground in favor of the political one.

Quoted by Syria's official SANA news agency, the Central Bank of Syria (CBS) said "As a breakthrough in the crisis is looming, the Syrian pound regains its strength gradually to reach a balanced price limit against other hard currencies."

On Sunday, the Syrian pound broke the level of 200 against the U.S. dollar for the first time in recent months. It's traded at 180 pounds by Sunday evening in the black market and highly expected to further increase to 175 pounds per dollar.

The pound has been stable over the past few weeks and was sold at an average of 210 pounds against dollar in the black market.

A day earlier, the CBS announced that it will continue its campaign to suppress the black market with the help of competent security authorities until doing away with it once and forever.

The government has clamped down on money dealers and a handful of money exchange companies have been shut down.

The pound's hike comes after a recent UN Security Council resolution on the elimination of Syria's chemical arsenal.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has stressed that his country "will comply" with the resolution, according to SANA reports.

Dr. Khader Orfali, Syrian Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade, described on Saturday the Syrian economy as being "steadfast," praising the "wise" economic policy that contributes to the resilience of the economy despite challenges in various forms.

The minister added that some government measures had been taken and more measures will be taken in the near future as required by the circumstances to serve the country's economy.

The Syrian Cabinet has recently issued a bulletin about the country's economic indicators in April, revealing a remarkable increase in the foodstuff prices and a decline in the import of oil derivatives.

According to the bulletin, the country's natural gas production decreased from 543.11 million cubic meters in March to 504.1 million in April, a decrease by about 7.2 percent, while crude oil production also dropped from 229.24 tons in March to around 74.35 tons in April. Oil exports also declined in 2013 by about 9.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the bulletin said the inflation rate has risen from 57.25 percent in March to 61.29 percent in April, an increase of roughly 7.1 percent.

The size of trading in the stock market has also climbed from 1, 995.4 thousand shares in March to 2,056 thousand shares in April, an increase of about 3 percent, while the index rose month-on- month by 13.3 percent in April.