Syria’s caretaker PM Bashir: Syria has very low foreign currency reserves

Reuters
This handout image made available by the Telegram channel of the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) early on December 17, 2024 shows Syria's interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir meeting with the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator in Damascus. (AFP)

DUBAI: Syrian caretaker Prime Minister Mohammad Al-Bashir told Al Jazeera TV on Tuesday that Syria has very low foreign currency reserves.
Current and former Syrian officials have told Reuters that the dollar reserves have been nearly depleted because Bashar Assad’s government increasingly used them to fund food, fuel and its war effort.
The central bank’s foreign exchange reserves amount to just around $200 million in cash, one of the sources told Reuters, while another said the US dollar reserves were “in the hundreds of millions.”