image copyrightNeha Sharma/BBC
Protests broke out in Syrian cities in September. In squares and streets, protesters burned tires, blocked roads and chanted slogans, expressing anger at the government's decision to raise fuel prices again. It was the biggest show of dissatisfaction with government decisions since Ahmed al-Sharaa came to power two years ago.
One of the protesters on a Syrian television channel said that he still supports the authorities, but his situation has become so difficult that he no longer has anything to buy bread with. “Honestly, we are already afraid of what new decision the next morning will bring us,” added another protest participant.
Another increase in fuel prices is another link in the chain of government decisions that are making the population poorer and poorer.
Since rebels led by al-Sharaa overthrew the regime of Bashar al-Assad, ending fifty years of brutal rule by the Assad family and thirteen years of devastating civil war, the well-being of many Syrians has deteriorated significantly.
After assuming the presidency, al-Sharaa began efforts to rebuild the economy, which had been damaged by a long war and sanctions.
No one doubted that this was a very difficult task. However, as Syrians celebrated the overthrow of Assad, perhaps overly optimistically, they hoped for rapid change for the better. However, over the two years of work of the new authorities, the life of the population has not improved; on the contrary, the financial situation of a significant part of the population continues to deteriorate, and the government’s economic policy causes disappointment among many.
Prices have increased for almost everything, including utilities and essential goods. And many perceived the next, unexpected increase in fuel costs as a sign that the government is out of touch with reality.
“We don’t need roundabouts! Every day they build a new interchange. People supported you and remain by your side,” another protester said to al-Sharaa, “but such actions could lead to an explosion.”
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Days later, amid calls for more protests, the price increase was reversed.
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In the suburbs of Damascus, I met Fatima Saleh Eid. She came to the market to buy food for the week. Fatima is 50 years old and works as a cleaner to help support her family.
“We had a really hard time,” she says. Her husband recently got a job at a ceramic factory; before that he was unemployed for a year. He was lucky: many of their friends have not been able to find work for a long time. On some streets, men gather in anticipation of odd jobs - often in vain.
Al-Sharaa's government, as part of its austerity policy, has significantly reduced subsidies that had been in place in the country for many years under Assad. After this, the price of bread, the staple food in Syria, increased tenfold. The cost of fuel in Syria is now in line with the global average. The sharp increase in fuel prices hit farmers, all transportation also became more expensive, and electricity tariffs for many companies increased by hundreds of percent.
The authorities tried to reduce tensions by indexing salaries in the public sector, as well as pensions, but due to the constant rise in prices, these increases in salaries and pensions are practically not felt.
“Now we eat much more modestly. We can no longer afford chicken or meat. We only eat vegetables, but even they are expensive,” says Fatima. “God willing, prices will come down someday.”
While we were talking, about a dozen people of all ages gathered around. Nobody objected to what Fatima said. The elderly man also admitted that he stopped buying meat. Another, in his twenties, said his family could no longer buy medicine for his father, who has a heart condition. One young woman admitted that she and her four children can only afford a full meal once every two days.
"I'm afraid of the electricity bill"
Pensioner Marwan Bashour, 68, says his monthly income is about $90, the minimum wage in the public sector. “This is absolutely not enough,” he says.
According to the United Nations Development Programme, in 2025, 90% of Syrians lived in poverty.
Marwan Bashour told me how he manages to survive on $90 a month.
“Sometimes I borrow money, sometimes I sell things from home. For example, an old saucepan, plates that we have never used, or gifts that we were once given. We even had to sell furniture,” he says.
There were other difficulties. Like many Syrians, Marwan previously relied on aid organizations for help. But now this support has stopped: due to funding cuts, organizations have been forced to cut back on the amount of assistance they provide.
Syria also felt the consequences of the confrontation between the United States and Iran. The government said the rise in fuel prices that sparked the protests was partly due to pressure on energy markets resulting from the conflict.
I met with another pensioner, 63-year-old Nabil al-Remhein. None of his four adult children were able to find work. “Now we only eat once a day. This is a real tragedy. And it’s not just me, the entire population lives this way. We are all starving... We are suffocating under the yoke of rising prices,” he says. Fatigue is visible on his face.
Nabil took me to his home, in a poor area with narrow streets and modest buildings. When we arrived, his wife was doing household chores. The house was dark, but she didn't turn on the light.
“I’m afraid of the electricity bill,” Nabil admitted. “We turn on the lights in the house less often, and we turn off the refrigerator for about five hours a day.”
Still, the final bill was equal to about a third of the family's income. Nabil never paid for it.
Haid Haid, a Syrian journalist and visiting expert at the London think tank Chatham House, noted that the situation for “a significant part of the population” was worse than before the fall of the Assad regime.
According to him, the economic crisis is one of the “most dangerous problems” for the government, and it was partly caused by it.
“Part of [the crisis] is due to the lack of [financial] resources and the legacy of the previous regime,” he explained. “But it is also a direct consequence of the new policies aimed at transitioning [Syria] to a free market economy - policies that completely do not take into account what the consequences of the transition will be for the people.”
A representative of the Syrian Ministry of Economy and Industry told me that none of the department’s employees could comment on the situation or give an interview.
Of course, the Syrian leadership managed to achieve certain important results.
International sanctions imposed under Bashar al-Assad were lifted, and the United States removed the country from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The security situation remains fragile and alarming, but overall the country has become calmer.
The president continues to strengthen his power: in particular, earlier this year he returned to his control the resource-rich northeast, ousting Kurdish forces from there. (At the same time, the Druze still hold areas in the south, seeking to create an autonomous entity there, and Israel occupies part of the southwestern territories.)
However, there is no talk of real economic recovery yet. Large swathes of Syria remain in ruins after a war that has killed half a million people and forced half the population to flee their homes.
Many families, unable to afford rent, are forced to huddle in partially destroyed buildings. The World Bank estimates that it will cost $216 billion to rebuild the country—without foreign aid and investment, it will be impossible for Syrians to rebuild.
Syrian economist Samir Aita of the Paris-based think tank Circle of Arab Economists described the current crisis as "the result of policies in which the authorities failed to set realistic public expectations, which created only unrealistic hopes."
When I asked how he assessed the future, Aita replied: “The situation is unstable. If the course does not change, I am afraid we will face chaos.”
Syrians, exhausted by years of war and practically deprived of choice, nevertheless continue to hope for the best.
Abu Mahmoud, a taxi driver, told me: “The country they inherited was already bankrupt, so people need to be patient. These things don’t happen overnight.”
With contributions from Lana Antaki, Samantha Granville and Neha Sharma
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