MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Syria is struggling to rebuild its shattered economy after years of dictatorship and crushing trade sanctions. Now, Syria has been given a boost by the U.S. lifting most sanctions to help out the new government that took control this year. As NPR'S Jane Arraf reports from Damascus, it's going to take a lot to repair the damage.
(SOUNDBITE OF BILL COUNTER WHIRRING)
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: At a bank branch downtown, a machine counts a big stack of bills worth just a few dollars since the collapse of the Syrian currency over the past decade.
UNIDENTIFIED BANK EMPLOYEE: (Speaking Arabic).
ARRAF: There are only a few customers waiting in the glitzy lobby, not because there isn't demand but because there isn't enough cash circulating in the country.
OMAR HAMEED: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: "We stopped filling the ATMs with money because of the long lines," branch manager Omar Hameed tells us. "One guy would come with 10 bank cards to withdraw all the money, and there would be nothing left for the others," he says.
Withdrawals that are more than a few dollars require Hameed's approval and proof - like medical reports - of why the customers need the money. When the bank runs out of cash, it closes its doors for the day. It's part of a multilayered financial crisis Syria is trying to emerge from since opposition fighters toppled the regime late last year and formed a government. The causes include years of sweeping financial and economic sanctions on Syria and a web of control and corruption under the previous regime.
ABDELKADER HUSRIEH: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: We sit down with Syria's new central bank governor, Abdelkader Husrieh. He's basically trying to reinvent Syria's financial system.
HUSRIEH: We are crossing the bridge to the free world.
ARRAF: He says a breakthrough was President Trump lifting sanctions which had isolated the country from the international banking system.
HUSRIEH: This is very positive, but it takes some time because for the banks outside Syria, they need time to digest, change these policies.
ARRAF: Husrieh left Canada to return to Syria. He has a lot to do but, for now, few tools to do it with.
HUSRIEH: Yesterday, I had a Zoom meeting. I was not able to log in because Zoom still - as Syria has its sanctions, we cannot use Zoom.
ARRAF: Syria has made clear it wants to maintain control over its finances, rejecting World Bank and IMF loans, planning to issue bonds and treasury bills to finance spending instead. For now, Syrian financial markets are a lonely place.
SULAIMAN MOUSELLI: And this is the room that meant to have some events inside here.
ARRAF: Sulaiman Mouselli, deputy head of the Damascus stock exchange, walks us through a huge, echoing building just outside Damascus. The exchange reopened in June, but a fuel shortage makes it hard to get there. And while there's a lot of pent-up demand for the 21 companies with active listings on the exchange, there are almost no trades.
And there are two big screens here with stock prices and what's trading, the amount that's been traded so far. In green letters it says open, but the numbers aren't changing very much.
MOUSELLI: In the case no one want to sell. So they are selling the minimum amount.
ARRAF: He says it's because investors are holding stocks, expecting prices to rise. We look at the big board for several minutes until there's a trade.
MOUSELLI: Yes - 166, now 167 (laughter).
ARRAF: OK (laughter). So how much of a difference is that in dollars?
MOUSELLI: Maybe 5,000 (laughter).
ARRAF: Five thousand dollars?
MOUSELLI: (Laughter).
ARRAF: In his office, he tells us the daily trades at the exchange normally total about $200,000. There would be more companies listed, he says, but under the Assad dictatorship, a lot of firms owned by regime insiders wanted to keep their business secret.
MOUSELLI: Companies tend to avoid coming to the exchange because we have strict regulation regarding disclosure, for example. You need to disclose for everything in order to have transparency.
(SOUNDBITE OF TELEPHONE RINGING)
NASSIF ZUGHAIB: (Speaking Arabic).
ARRAF: In the row of desks, there's a single stockbroker talking on a landline. Nassif Zughaib says he's come to the exchange because the phones aren't working at his firm's city office. He says the new government is restoring confidence in the stock market, but there's a bigger issue.
ZUGHAIB: (Speaking Arabic).
ARRAF: "Here we have the purchase orders and here are the sales orders," he says. "So it's just purchase orders. No one wants to sell."
ZUGHAIB: (Speaking Arabic).
ARRAF: Because of the liquidity crisis, sellers can't access the proceeds of any sales. The money remains frozen in banks. So the list of buy orders keeps growing, waiting in a queue for whenever this current crisis is over and cash starts moving again.
ZUGHAIB: (Speaking Arabic).
(SOUNDBITE OF TELEPHONE RINGING)
ARRAF: Jane Arraf, NPR News, Damascus. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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