Syria to reconnect to global economy and financial systems after 14 years as pariah state Country to be relinked to Swift payment system after more than a decade of sanctions, central bank chief says.
According to the Financial Times Syria will be fully reconnected to the Swift international payment system “in a matter of weeks”, the country’s new central bank governor said, relinking the country to the global economy after 14 years of war and sanctions.
The return of Swift is the first major milestone in the new government’s liberalising overhaul of the Syrian economy — and a sign that the new authorities are moving fast to lure international trade and investment after the US lifted sanctions last month. Swift’s return will help encourage foreign trade, cut import costs and facilitate exports. It would also bring much-needed foreign currency into the country, strengthen anti-money laundering efforts and ease the dependence on informal financial networks for cross-border trade.
In an interview in Damascus, central bank chief Abdulkader Husrieh detailed a road map for restructuring the country’s financial system and monetary policy in order to rebuild the decimated economy. He hopes to bring back foreign investment, remove barriers to trade, normalize the currency and reform the banking sector.
Syria has been cut off from global markets since 2011, when then-president Bashar al-Assad violently repressed a popular uprising, triggering a full-scale civil war. When Assad was overthrown by Ahmed al-Sharaa and his rebel alliance last December, the economy was in freefall and state coffers drained.
Source: Financial Times