Syria approves budget to tackle financial crisis

 Amid the growing financial crisis, Syria has announced a draft budget of $5.3bn for 2022. Leaders believe that this budget will look after the problems that the nation has been facing economically. 

The budget was announced on Wednesday by the lawmakers and they have stressed that this will be a crucial year for Syria in terms of the financial calls. It is important to note that there has been a reduction in the budget from last year which was $6.8bn. 

Most of the services in the country are hampered due to the economic downfall as well as the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. This includes public finances continuing to suffer, less supply of subsidies on essential goods.

There are a lot of reasons for the condition of the Syrian economy ranging from the continuous western sanctions to a decade-long civil war to infighting by the various rebel groups. The covid-19 pandemic further pushed the population into poverty as the value of the Syrian pound has plummeted. 

Whatever the government is spending now is only the bare minimum. The tidal spending value of the leaders has been cut by 40 percent which is a huge amount for any drowning economy. The cut also threatens many of the social support programs that the government was supposed to do. 

The budget still requires the signature of President Bashar al-Assad only after which it will be approved.