Camille, your labors of love are a benefit to us all. Thanks for spearheading this important project and especially for offering solutions to help move Syria and the region forward.

By Zainab Fattah and Matthew Brown
June 4 (Bloomberg) — Syria became the second Middle
Eastern nation in two weeks to say it will dump its currency’s
peg to the dollar to curb rising import costs and inflation.
The country will link the Syrian pound to International
Monetary Fund special drawing rights instead from mid-July,
central bank Governor Adib Mayaleh said. The value of the
drawing rights is determined against a basket of currencies
including the dollar, euro, yen and U.K. pound.
“The decision is final,” said Mayaleh in a phone
interview from Abu Dhabi. “This will help stabilize the Syrian
pound and bring down inflation.”
Syria is broadening its peg after the country’s currency
was dragged lower against the euro by a 10 percent slide in the
dollar last year, pushing up the cost of imports from Europe.
Kuwait shifted its peg to a basket of currencies on May 20
because of rising consumer prices, which are also accelerating
in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
“The weaker dollar is fueling inflation,” said Dorothee
Gasser, an analyst at ING Bank in London. “We see the U.A.E. as
the next possible shifter.”
The U.A.E. dirham slid 0.01 percent to 3.6727 against the
dollar today, the Qatari riyal gained 0.01 percent to 3.6392,
and the Saudi riyal was little changed at 3.7504. The Syrian
pound was unchanged, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Inflation to Slow

Syrian inflation accelerated to 10 percent in 2006, from
7.2 percent the previous year, according to the IMF. Qatar’s
consumer price index leapt 14.8 percent from a year earlier in
the first quarter, from 12.8 percent in the prior three months.
Inflation reached 10.1 percent last year in the U.A.E., from 7.8
percent in 2005.
Mayaleh said the pace of price gains in Syria may slow to 8
percent this year because of the shift away from the dollar peg.
“Inflation is a risk for all these countries and allowing
their currencies to appreciate versus the dollar is one way to
address that,” Jon Harrison, an analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort
Group Ltd., said in London.
Syria, under fire from the U.S. for alleged support for
terrorism, said in July last year it planned to dump the dollar
peg by the end of 2006 to reflect closer trade ties with Europe.
The Central Bank of Syria had converted half its currency
reserves to euros, Mayaleh said last July. The reserves,
including gold, totaled $4.1 billion at the end of 2005,
according to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
Mayaleh said today the switch in the peg would contribute
to investment growth and “there’s no political reason” for
ending the dollar link. “We’re technocrats,” he said. Reuters
earlier today cited Mayaleh as saying that earlier plans to end
the dollar peg had been held up.
The IMF based the valuation of SDRs as of Jan. 1, 2006, on
a weighting of 44 percent for U.S. dollars, 34 percent for euros
and 11 percent each for the yen and U.K. pound.

Alex,
As always you are a first class expatriate, first class moderator, and a gentleman !!. This was an excellent idea, I hope it will soon flourish to a solution.

Alex,

Your amazing efforts are invaluable.

Keep it up.

Camille Alexandre Otrakji = Alex?

A nice companion to Camille (Alex)’s effort can be found at the Arab American Institute‘s website. They will be doing live webchats with prominent individuals like Hanan Ashrawi as well. It’s a more comprehensive look at the 1967 war and the aftermath. Worth a look.

Thank you George, Idaf, and Atassi !

It is great to get this kind of recognition here. I have been neglecting my real work for the past few months to finish the CS update. My employees are asking me “Is there a way we can fire you?”

K, you did not know?

Alex, You are a one man cultural ministry. I cannot thank you enough for all your help with Syria Comment as well. For anyone who does not already know, Alex redid the layout of Syria Comment for me. It is tremendous. Thank you. Creative Syria is a beauty. I cannot imagine how many hours have gone into it. Worth every minute. Bravo.

Nice work Alex:

I saw your site just before christmas last year; it was the major reason that stirred me into planning a trip to Lebanon and Syria next year, my wife has several cousins married to Syrians, we will visit them at the same time, it will be my first trip, plannng to go in May/June 08, cant wait.

In the mean time we will enjoy the photos and your site.

[…] Writing at Syria Comment, Camille Alexandre Otrakji announces the launch of Syria’s Creative Forum. ‘For the Forum’s first monthly discussion topic, I invited some of the best Syrian bloggers and analysts to tackle the following question concerning the Golan Heights: “If you could write a one page letter to an Israeli citizen who does not believe his country should give back the Golan Heights to Syria, what would you tell him/her?”‘ she notes. Share This […]

Alex,

It’s a great site, in form and content, clearly a lot of effort has gone into it. Mabrouk.

It is amazing how Alex is not the minister of Expatriates instead of Mrs. Shaaban. He has done more good for Syria than she could dream of

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Thanks 🙂

Enlightened,

Enjoy your trip. But be prepared… The photos on creative syria do not show the pollution and traffic jams in Damascus. But you will still have a very special trip I’m sure.

K,thank you. The effort the past two years was about 3000 hours. Absolutely worth it for me. If I did not enjoy it, I would not have done it.

Joshua, I spend an hour everyday on Syria Comment. It was my pleasure to be able to help in anything related to Syria Comment … “the most prominent Syrian blog” 🙂