After more than a decade of conflict and compounding economic disasters, poverty in Syria is no longer a temporary crisis—it has become a structural feature of daily life. With purchasing power obliterated and living costs soaring, the struggle has shifted from building a better life to simply surviving the day. This economic reality is not just affecting bank accounts; it is fundamentally rewiring the country’s social fabric, eroding the middle class, and redefining the very meaning of belonging.
Quick Facts
- 90% of Syrians now live below the poverty line.
- The middle class has shrunk from 60% pre-2011 to just 5%.
- The Syrian pound has lost over 99.5% of its value.
- One in four Syrians is officially unemployed.
From Stability to Survival
Across Syria, personal stories paint a grim picture of an economy in freefall. In Aleppo, Abdullah Hammo, a government employee, says his salary has become a “symbolic number.” He works his official job in the morning and moonlights as a delivery driver at night, yet his combined income barely covers basic necessities. His experience illustrates a key shift: work is no longer a means for stability, but a tool for daily survival.
This sentiment is echoed in Damascus, where university graduate Ahmad Ezzo has found his arts degree worthless in the current market. He scrapes by with online freelance work and by selling homemade products. “Most of the graduates of my generation whom I knows are living in an open-ended state of waiting,” Ahmad noted, highlighting a structural failure where academic qualifications no longer guarantee a professional future.
The crisis has also crippled foundational sectors. In southern Aleppo, farmer Mahmoud Sarhan explains that agriculture is no longer a viable livelihood. Skyrocketing costs for seeds, fertilizer, and fuel have forced him to shrink his cultivated land and rely on remittances from a son abroad. “We farm to live, not to make a profit,” Sarhan said.
Faced with these conditions, many Syrians have turned to the “shadow economy,” taking on second jobs or engaging in unregulated work. However, experts warn these are merely individual survival tactics that do little to address the root causes, trapping society in a state of “managing poverty” rather than overcoming it.
A Structural Collapse, Not a Temporary Crisis
Economic experts argue that Syria’s current state is the result of deep, long-term transformations. Dr. Abdul Rahman Mohammed, a professor at the University of Hama, calls it a “multidimensional structural phenomenon,” where the erosion of the productive sector, flawed reconstruction policies, and external sanctions have entrenched new patterns of marginalization.
“Current poverty is not the result of an emergency crisis, but rather the cumulative outcome of economic policies that predate 2011,” Mohammed stated. He explained that pre-existing issues like weak investment and disguised unemployment were massively amplified by the war, which destroyed infrastructure and collapsed social safety nets.
Dr. Majdi al-Jamous of Damascus University points to a “gap between expectations and reality.” Many Syrians had hoped for rapid economic improvement, but the failure of these hopes to materialize has led to widespread frustration. He also identifies a form of “economic factionalism,” where signs of prosperity are confined to specific groups while the most vulnerable segments of society expand. This has been exacerbated by the lifting of subsidies, which directly impacted living standards for millions.
The Social Fabric Unravels
The economic collapse is tearing at Syrian society’s core. The erosion of the middle class, which once acted as a stabilizing force, has widened the gap between social groups and fueled a sense of injustice.
This economic pressure has profound psychological consequences. Psychosocial consultant Dr. Heba Kamal Arnous explains that persistent poverty creates a “scarcity mindset,” where short-term thinking dominates and long-term planning becomes impossible. It also erodes a sense of control over one’s life, leading to what she calls “learned helplessness”—the feeling that individual effort no longer changes outcomes.
“Trust in institutions, the state and the law, declines, while trust rises in close networks, family, sect, and tribe,” Arnous noted. This shift from an institutional system to a relationship-based one threatens national cohesion. The constant anxiety and mental exhaustion also contribute to rising family pressures and deteriorating mental health across society.
Can Policy Catch Up with Reality?
While the Syrian government has announced initiatives like a “National Strategy for Social Protection and Combating Poverty,” details remain scarce and experts are skeptical of their potential impact without deeper reforms. Economist Yahya al-Sayed Omar argued that recent salary increases, such as Decree No. 67, have a limited effect when the minimum wage covers only a fraction of a family’s basic needs.
Financial and banking expert Dr. Abdullah Qazzaz stated, “The 50% increase looks positive in theory, but the living costs for a family of four exceed five million Syrian pounds per month… the minimum wage covers only 25% of basic needs.” He warned that such measures deepen the social rift, as they fail to benefit the 70% of workers in the private sector or the unemployed.
Experts agree that exiting this crisis requires more than temporary relief. It demands a comprehensive vision focused on reviving productive sectors like agriculture and small-to-medium enterprises, implementing broad monetary reforms, and launching a serious fight against corruption. Without these structural changes, Syrians will remain trapped in a cycle of adaptation to poverty, rather than moving toward a sustainable recovery.
About the Syrian Economic Crisis
The Syrian economic crisis is a long-term, structural collapse resulting from over a decade of conflict, international sanctions, internal policy failures, and the destruction of the country’s productive capacity. It is characterized by hyperinflation, currency devaluation, mass unemployment, and the near-total erosion of the middle class. According to UN reports, approximately 90% of the population lives below the poverty line, forcing a majority of citizens into a state of daily survival and reliance on informal economies and remittances. The crisis has had profound social and psychological impacts, threatening the nation’s social cohesion and long-term stability.
Source: Enab Baladi
