{"id":16273,"date":"2012-10-01T16:54:39","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T20:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=16273"},"modified":"2012-10-02T08:20:21","modified_gmt":"2012-10-02T12:20:21","slug":"intra-alawite-fighting-in-qardaha-not-confirmed-turkey-denies-syria-captured-pilots-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/intra-alawite-fighting-in-qardaha-not-confirmed-turkey-denies-syria-captured-pilots-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"Intra-Alawite fighting in Qardaha not Confirmed; Turkey Denies Syria Captured Pilots Alive; `Ar`our Returns to Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister Calls on People to Raise Backyard Chickens<\/a> as Subsistence Economy Takes Hold in Growing Parts of the Country – Syria Report<\/p>\n

The Minister of Agriculture has called on Syrian citizens to raise chickens as formal economic patterns are gradually disappearing in growing parts of the country.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jihad Yazigi has an excellent report on the Syrian economy<\/a> given in London by the London School of Economics, “Inside Syria: 18 Months On,”<\/p>\n

….Let\u2019s run the figures in terms of numbers where we are today. Syria\u2019s gross domestic product probably contracted last year anywhere between 12 and 15 percent and this year it will contract anywhere between 20, 25, 30, 35 percent\u00a0and we don\u2019t really know.\u00a0 We have absolutely no idea what\u2019s going on in Aleppo, Idlib and\u00a0Deir ez-Zor, but a very significant contraction. Unemployment is very high. In large parts of the country anyway unemployment is not an issue really because people are just fleeing violence. Foreign exchange reserves\u00a0like I told you are down. The currency has lost 50 percent of its value\u00a0in the last\u00a018 months. It was traded at 47 SYP a dollar in March 2011. It is now at 70 SYP. It was at 70 SYP on Friday and 72 SYP on Monday and today at 74 SYP if I understand. Inflation is officially, in June, at 36 percent before the price was at 4 percent so it\u2019s also a significant increase. Government expenses have been \u2013 I mean government has larger divested from the economy in terms of investment expenditures. It\u2019s really paying only\u00a0salaries.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m giving you all this data and all these figures, but you have to realise that, in practice, you can\u2019t really talk anymore about the formal economy. For instance, I\u2019m taking about the inflation rate. Officially, that\u2019s one of the very few indicators that are published officially publicly. It is at 36 percent, but you have to look at, first of all, these figures and then very different situations across the country.\u00a0 For instance, before coming to London, I met someone who has just comeback from a village near the city of Raqqah in the north east. So I was asking him about the economic and social condition there. It\u2019s a village near Raqqah. He was telling me there is no gasoline whatsoever. Telephone is cut off, both the landline network and the mobile phone networks are cut off, no connections. A kilogram of tomatoes which was sold at 25 SYP a few weeks earlier is now sold at 125 SYP and the cooking gas cylinder is sold at a $100. It was very interesting because, for the first time, someone prices anything in dollars. In Syria, you price everything in pounds and, of course, it reminds you a bit of Lebanon where the currency devalued so quickly that people were obliged to fix the price in dollar. But still $100, that\u2019s 10 times its price in Damascus. A cooking gas cylinder in Damascus is sold at 700 SYP in the market at $10…. Read it all<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Adnan Ar’our, the controversial sheikh, has returned to Syria. <\/a>`Ar`ur who became a hero to many in the revolution for cursing Alawites and regime supporters on Saudi TV, has returned to Syria. In this video he is a keynote speaker at a joint leadership meeting of the revolutionary military councils. al-jazeerah video<\/p>\n