Syria‘s new central bank governor Safwat Raslan has promised to work on raising living standards in his first public remarks since the sudden removal of his predecessor, as hardship persists 18 months into the post-Bashar Al Assad era.
President Ahmad Al Shara appointed Mr Raslan to the position on Friday, replacing 65-year-old Abdulkader Husrieh, an economist and management consultant from Damascus.
Mr Raslan, an accountant turned banker from Aleppo, left to live in Germany during the Syrian civil war and returned to lead a government development fund last year. Unlike in neighbouring Lebanon, the Central Bank of Syria operates as part of the political system and is not independent.
Mr Raslan, who is in his mid-40s, said he is taking the post in “one of the most sensitive periods” in Syria’s modern history, and that he realises “exactly the size of the economic and livelihood challenges”.
Monetary policy only succeeds “when it reflects in a real way on people’s lives”, Mr Raslan said in an online post. He said the bank will gradually restore monetary stability but did not elaborate.
The Syrian pound is trading at 13,700 to the dollar, slightly weaker than during 2024, the last year of Bashar Al Assad’s rule. The exchange rate was 50 Syrian pounds to the dollar at the onset of the March 2011 revolt against Assad family rule. By the end of that year, Syria was in a state of civil war.
The change at the top of the central bank came days after Mr Al Shara replaced the information and agriculture ministers. He also removed his elder brother, Maher Al Shara, as his chief of staff.
According to loyalist media, the President also removed his brother Hazem from a low-key body responsible for confiscating assets from former regime figures, although there was no official confirmation.
An official told The National that President Al Shara believes that the new order has done well in improving security but that this has not been matched in other departments. He appointed Mr Husrieh in April last year because the banker knew the “ins and outs” of the old system, having advised the old regime on financial regulations and setting up a bourse.
“Husrieh served his role,” the official said.
During Mr Husrieh’s tenure, the US lifted most sanctions on Syria, allowing limited access to international payment systems. Mr Husrieh also oversaw the introduction of new banknotes that removed two zeroes from the old ones, although the old Syrian pound remains in circulation. The aim of the new currency was to raise confidence in the new order.
However, Syria remains in a stabilisation phase following a prolonged civil war and as the country is racked by low living standards and public discontent.
More than one million people displaced during the 2011-to-2024 conflict are still living in camps, with Syria’s reconstruction largely stalled. Mr Al Shara, whose Hayat Tahrir Al Sham forces captured Damascus in December 2024 after a lightning sweep from the north, has promised a transition to pluralism within five years.
Mr Al Shara has overwhelmingly appointed Islamists to the post-Assad bureaucracy, particularly rural Sunnis, as part of awarding his core constituency. However, he has sought a geographical balance, particularly among urban appointees from the main centres of Damascus, Aleppo, Hama and Homs.