Published by Timour Azhari
DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Syria's central bank vault holds nearly 26 tons of gold, the same amount it had at the start of its bloody civil war in 2011, even after the chaotic fall of the despotic regime of Bashar al -Assad, four people familiar with the situation told Reuters.
But the country has very little foreign currency reserves, the same people said.
Syria's gold reserves stood at 25.8 tonnes in June 2011, according to the World Gold Council, which cites the Central Bank of Syria as its data source. That's worth $2.2 billion at current market prices, according to Reuters calculations.
The central bank's foreign exchange reserves, however, are only about $200 million in cash, one of the sources told Reuters, while another said US dollar reserves were “in the hundreds of millions”.
Although not all reserves would be held in cash, the reduction is significant compared to before the war. At the end of 2011, the Syrian central bank reported $14 billion in foreign reserves, according to the International Monetary Fund. In 2010, the IMF had estimated Syria's foreign reserves at $18.5 billion.
The dollar reserves are almost depleted as the regime uses them more to finance food, fuel and Assad's war effort, Syrian officials and former officials have told Reuters.
Media representatives for Syria's new governing administration and for the Central Bank of Syria did not respond to Reuters requests for comment regarding the size of the central bank's reserves.
Syria stopped sharing financial information with the IMF, World Bank and other international organizations shortly after the Assad regime crushed pro-democracy protests in 2011 in a crackdown that turned into civil war.
The new Syrian government, led by former rebels, is still taking care of the country's assets after Assad fled to Russia on December 8. Reuters reported.
Some of the loot was then returned by Syria's new rulers, Syrian officials told Reuters.
The vault is bombproof and requires three keys, each held by a different person, and a combination code to open, one of the sources said.
The vault was inspected by members of Syria's new administration last week, two sources said, days after rebels seized control of the Syrian capital Damascus in a crackdown that ended more than 50 years of rule by the Assad family.
Led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, a former affiliate of Al Qaeda that has long since severed these ties, the new administration has quickly installed a government and is asserting control of state institutions.
Reuters was unable to access the central bank's vaults.
BACK AT WORK
The central bank's headquarters, a vast white building in central Damascus, opened in full on Sunday, the first day of Syria's working week.
It was full of workers as well as people looking for access to dollars, while others were carrying bags full of Syrian notes.
In addition to the meager reserves of US dollars, Syria's central bank can currently count on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Syrian pounds in its reserves, one source said.
New foreign currency inflows decreased as Syria lost its main source of foreign income, when Kurdish fighters and other armed groups seized the areas in the east of the country during the war.
Syria has also been targeted with tough Western sanctions and the United States has sanctioned its own central bank and blacklisted several of its governors.
But the sources familiar with the situation told Reuters that the gold was never freed up to hold sufficient collateral for the Syrian notes circulating in the market.
The local Syrian currency has depreciated from around 50 pounds per dollar before the war to around 12,500 as of Monday.
The new Syrian administration has called for the lifting of international sanctions to revive the economy, rebuild the country from years of war and encourage the return of millions of Syrian refugees.
But US and European officials have said they will have to wait and see what kind of administration the country's new Islamic rulers put in place.
