Reconstruction in Syria to cost $165bn

The reconstruction process in Syria will cost around 165 billion U.S. dollars and is expected to be more difficult with the prolonged crisis entering its fourth year, according to a report by a local website. Such a cost is equivalent to Syria's budgets for 18 years, said al-Ektisadi, or the Economist, a private website specialized in tracking the Syrian economical situation during the crisis. The report added it would take between 15 and 25 years to complete the reconstruction process as no signs show an end to the three-year-old crisis. Reconstruction is one of the pressing issues the Syrian government is facing as increasing displaced Syrians complain of the skyrocketing house rents and their inability to afford soaring house prices in safe areas. The United Nations recently revealed that the number of displaced Syrian has reached 8.7 million. Meanwhile, the report said the reconstruction process would face many challenges in the field of finance, noting that there is a relative scarcity in the national capital inside Syria, compared with the minimum amounts needed for the reconstruction. In addition, it also pointed out other issues such as the chronic trade deficit and deficient government foreign reserves. Economists estimated that the long-running crisis cost the Syrian economy 150 billion dollars by 2013. Hourani, a professor from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Damascus, said that the country's unemployment rate had climbed to 50 percent in 2013, while the poverty rate stood at 40 percent and inflation at 50 percent. Hourani said the three-year-old Syrian crisis has caused great harm to the economy, blaming international economic sanctions and a lack of efficient policies to improve the economic situation. He added that those elements have had direct impact on the sharp decline in the value of the Syrian pound against the dollar, which also led to an increase in the prices of most commodities by up to 250 percent.