As the conflict in Syria continues, with the United Nations reporting a dramatic increase in the numbers of refugees fleeing the country, Syria’s economy, too, is a victim of the violence. And its chances of recovery are looking slim.
“Syria is now fully a war economy that displays all the features of a country in conflict,” Samer Abboud, assistant professor of history and international studies at Arcadia University, told Trend Lines in an email interview. “There is increased informality and black market activity, an increase in criminality and markets for violence, families trying to cope under these conditions by whatever means possible and so on.”
Syria’s violence, the displacement it has caused and the resulting collapse of labor markets have all splintered the Syrian economy so that it is “no longer one economy but a mosaic of economies,” he continued.