Impact On Syrian Economy & Society
In some ways, the Syrian economy has benefited from the arrival of the Iraqis, causing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to go as far as crediting the refugees for propelling the recovery of the Syrian economy beginning in 2004. According to one of the government's chief economists, Syria's GDP doubled between 2004 and 2010 to $60 billion dollars. The Iraqis have raised national consumption, invested in Syrian businesses, and stimulated the housing market, while cross border trade has opened up new markets for Syrian industries in Iraq. After the boon to Syrian manufacturing and commercial activity, the Syrian Ministry of Finance reported that unemployment among Syrian citizens had fallen substantially. Yet while the economic indicators suggest Syria has benefited from the arrival of the Iraqis, the rewards have only been enjoyed by a small percentage of the population. The costs induced by rising inflation, real estate prices, and demand for subsidized goods has been shouldered by Syrian consumers and the state budget. Prices for groceries and transportation have spiraled upward, while demand has also spiked for electricity, gas, and water. Nevertheless, it is difficult to tell how much Syria's changing economic conditions are directly related to the refugees rather than the state's undergoing structural adjustment programs, market reforms, and decreasing oil revenues. Regardless, Syrian officials still complained in 2007 that the Iraqi refugees had cost the state over $1 billion dollars.
Read more about this topic: Iraqis In Syria
Famous quotes containing the words impact on, impact, syrian, economy and/or society:
“Too many existing classrooms for young children have this overriding goal: To get the children ready for first grade. This goal is unworthy. It is hurtful. This goal has had the most distorting impact on five-year-olds. It causes kindergartens to be merely the handmaidens of first grade.... Kindergarten teachers cannot look at their own children and plan for their present needs as five-year-olds.”
—James L. Hymes, Jr. (20th century)
“If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldnt be here. Itd still be waiting for an environmental impact statement.”
—Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)
“If in that Syrian garden, ages slain,
You sleep, and know not you are dead in vain,
Nor even in dreams behold how dark and bright
Ascends in smoke and fire by day and night
The hate you died to quench and could but fan,
Sleep well and see no morning, son of man.”
—A.E. (Alfred Edward)
“The aim of the laborer should be, not to get his living, to get a good job, but to perform well a certain work; and, even in a pecuniary sense, it would be economy for a town to pay its laborers so well that they would not feel that they were working for low ends, as for a livelihood merely, but for scientific, or even moral ends. Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“Instead of seeing society as a collection of clearly defined interest groups, society must be reconceptualized as a complex network of groups of interacting individuals whose membership and communication patterns are seldom confined to one such group alone.”
—Diana Crane (b. 1933)