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The Syrian Center for Policy Research, in co-operation with the UN Palestinian refugee agency and the UN Development Program, produced the report “Squandering Humanity”, which says that the Syrian civil war has had a disastrous effect on its economy, and has plunged half of its population into poverty.
According to the report, the conflict is creating “economies of violence that flout human rights, civil liberties, poverty rights and the rule of law”. The report also says that new elites “trade illegally in weapons, commodities and people, while often engaged in pillage, theft, kidnapping and exploitation of humanitarian assistance” and in the end “Syria has become a country of poor people afflicted by a ruinous decent into poverty”.
The report added that 75% of the population is living in poverty, 54.3% is living in extreme poverty and 20% is living in “abject poverty”, with those in “conflict zones and besieged areas facing hunger, malnutrition and starvation”.
Poverty, a reflection of the unemployment rate, has increased from 10.3% in 2011 to 54.3% in 2013. Over 2.7 million people have lost their jobs, affecting the 11 million depending on them. Unemployment was found to be highest in the North-Eastern part of the country, with a 65% unemployment rate in the Raqa province.
Fourth quarter private consumption fell to 25.5%, while spending focused mainly on food, and for the 45% who had fled their homes, rent. Spending has also been made extremely difficult due to an astronomical 178% rise in prices since 2011.
The GDP has also fallen by 41% in the past three years, equivalent to a $70.9 billion loss. During this period, the structure of the GDP has also been altered, with it now being represented mostly by government services and domestic trade, while industry and agriculture has slumped. Meanwhile, military spending has also soared to 15.9% of the GDP, significantly higher than the 1.7% in 2011.
Click here for the full report.