Food, petrol, transport - everything in Syria is skyrocketing in price. People are no longer simply limiting their spending, but are forced to think only about how to survive. At the same time, the government is announcing good news. But for whom?
Kanan Abdullah has been a driver in the Syrian capital Damascus for about 12 years, but - like many in his profession - is struggling to make ends meet after the latest fuel price hike in Syria. "At the end of the day, you have almost nothing left", he told DW. "You can only fill up the tank again, but how can you buy food? "What if I need money to fix my car?" he laments.
Others share the same concerns. "People are worried about how they will get to work and how they will get home, because transportation takes up almost half of their salary," adds Qamar Qassoum, a mother of three from Damascus.
In mid-September, the Syrian government raised the prices of all types of fuel. The biggest increase was for diesel - by 40%. The Energy Ministry cited global market trends as well as domestic shortages.
Largest protests since Assad's rule
The move has sparked some of the largest protests in Syria since Assad's dictatorship was toppled in late 2024. While fuel prices are still comparable to those in other countries in the region, Syrians are struggling due to their lower purchasing power, experts say. Demonstrators have burned tires, blocked roads and called for the removal of politicians they see as responsible.
The protests have subsided after the Syrian government reversed some changes and announced plans to subsidize diesel fuel for heating, agriculture and industry. However, higher fuel prices are only one factor fueling inflationary pressures. The Syrian Center for Policy Studies says prices rose by almost 25% between July 2025 and July 2026. Worryingly, the most serious increase - about 37% - affects the "most necessary expenses" - for housing, water, electricity and gas.
“There is no reasonable relationship between the income of people in Syria and the prices they pay,” Alaa Sandian, an architect from Damascus, told DW. And the mother of three, Qamar Qassoum, adds that it is no longer enough for people to limit their spending on non-essential things - now they have to think exclusively and only about their livelihood.
Economic growth - but for whom?
All this is happening despite the abundance of seemingly good news about the Syrian economy. International investment and projects worth billions of dollars are regularly announced, and in a speech at the Arab Media Forum in Dubai on Tuesday, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa predicted that the country’s economy would grow to $50 billion this year – about $20 billion more than in 2024.
But this much-vaunted prosperity is somehow not reaching ordinary Syrians, more than two-thirds of whom still live in relative poverty, according to UN figures.
A New Syria for the “Rich”
Sandian, a Damascus architect, says it’s hard to say who benefits from the economic development. “With many of the projects that are being announced now, we don’t see anything happening in practice – there’s no real impact on real life. I have the feeling that these projects are aimed at a specific social group: the wealthy class. I'm not sure they're for everyone.
And she's not the only one who thinks so. There's a lot of criticism about the direction of economic development in Syria, and concerns that it could benefit the wealthy. More radical anti-government activists have drawn attention to the luxury watches that some Syrian politicians are wearing. They accuse them of "crony capitalism," and critics suggest that the government is diverting funds to the military to ensure its own power. None of these accusations have been independently confirmed.
However, criticism also comes from more moderate circles. In an article in August, the Syrian newspaper "Al-Jumhuriya" examined the large-scale real estate projects announced in the country worth billions of dollars. They consist mainly of gated communities and luxury apartments. Amid the country's serious housing crisis, the publication asks who will actually be able to live in these complexes.
"Neoliberal" policies are inappropriate
There are concerns that old patterns are being repeated. “As certain existing forms of corruption and resource extraction are being reshaped, new channels of profiteering are emerging… albeit with new winners and losers,” said an analysis published this week by the Syrian think tank Etana.
Observers say the neoliberal-style reforms the Syrian government is currently pursuing will only deepen the problem and, in the long run, lead to the same social problems that led to the Syrian revolution in 2011.
When the new Syrian government took power in late 2024, ordinary Syrians were willing to give it a chance. Monthly opinion polls by the journal “Syria in Transition" However, patience is running out: only 13% of respondents believe that the government is doing enough to deal with sharply rising energy and food prices, while 66% consider these efforts insufficient, the publication notes.
The need for better governance
“The country's new leaders are trying to liberalize the economy with shock therapy, without taking into account the fact that most Syrians are poor and vulnerable,“ wrote Sam Heller, an analyst at the New York-based think tank “Century International“, in the magazine “Foreign Affairs“.
In an online interview with DW, Karam Shaar, director of “Karam Shaar Advisory“ - a New Zealand-based consulting firm focusing on the Syrian economy - called for a change in the government's course. He acknowledges that some of the actions of the new authorities were necessary after the end of the war, but what is needed now is more transparency, expertise and better governance.
“I think they are starting to realize this, and there is still some hope that this will actually happen,“ adds Shaar.