In late December, Maysa Sabreen was appointed as the governor of the Central Bank in Syria. Sabreen climbed from the deputy ruler after the rebel group overthrew the remnants of Taher Al -Sham (HTS) President Bashar al -Assad, which made her the first woman to hold this position.
In a 14 -year -old country, she faced a long list of challenges.
“At the present time, the situation is chaotic in terms of economic measures,” says Jihad Yazigi, editor -in -chief of the Syria report. The list of urgent tasks of the higher regulator includes the confirmation of the exchange rate on the Syrian pound and the expansion of one of the highest inflation rates in the world.
“The first goal of the Central Bank will be to restore confidence in the local currency,” says Ali Odeh, head of Arab banking research. The pound has lost more than 90 % of its value since the beginning of the civil war in 2011 and 95 % of the Syrians live below the poverty line.
Under the Assad regime, the government dictates monetary policy, but Sabreen wants to regain its independence institution. Since she took office, she has taken steps to facilitate foreign trade, but Syria and the central bank are still under the imposition of international sanctions. While some countries have begun to lift the restrictions imposed on oil and gas exports, Western banks are still prohibited from transactions with Syria.
“I doubt that the Trump administration will suspend these sanctions without important political concessions from the new authorities,” Yazigi says.
HTS, the actual rulers in Damascus, who were previously affiliated with al -Qaeda, but broke the Islamic Group in 2016, repeatedly asked for the sanctions targeting the Assad regime. If this occurs, the Central Bank can recover frozen assets of millions of dollars from abroad.
Sabreen will also supervise Syrian banks, which have been separated from the global financial system for more than a decade.
“Public institutions, which dominate the banking sector, need to restructure and follow appropriate banking practices,” says Ali Odeh. “Parallel, the private sector should be allowed to play a greater role in the economy.”
