Four years of war have seen Syria’s economy contract by more than 50%, with the biggest losses sustained in the energy and manufacturing sectors according to a Chatham House report released this week.
Analysis conducted by the Syrian Center for Policy Research using patchy publicly-available data on the Syrian economy – data that includes company filings and trade statistics for neighboring Turkey – indicates an even larger contraction of 62% between 2010 and 2014. The largest losses, of 30.9% and 36.5% respectively were in 2012 and 2013, with the mining sector, including oil, contracting by 94%, according to the SCPR numbers. Accumulated 2010-14 losses are equivalent to 229% of the 2010 GDP. An alternate calculation by the report’s author David Butter gives a slightly less “staggering” 188% loss. (CONTINUED - 984 WORDS)
