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When discussing the economic model suitable for post-Assad Syria, the new Syrian authorities seem to have a clear-cut script: the country will embrace a free-market approach opening the door to private investors and getting rid of the socialist approach adopted in the 54 years of Assad regime rule. It is unclear if the caretaker authorities’ statements are just music to foreign investors’ ears, part of their efforts to dismantle the regime’s legacy, or if it is truly their economic agenda.

The unimaginable has happened. Bashar Al-Assad, one of the bloodiest criminals of the past decades, is finally gone. After 12 days of fighting, the whole edifice that Hafez Al-Assad and his son had built over the past 54 years has finally crumbled. Now, not only have Syrians the right to dream of a better future, but also contribute to it.

In twelve days, the offensive led by opposition-armed groups put an end to 24 years of rule of Bashar Al-Assad. On December 8, as the slogans of the 2011-revolution echoed again in the streets of Damascus, and thousands of detainees were released from the regime’s prisons, Bashar Al-Assad and his family fled to Russia, where they were granted asylum.

In less than a week, HTS has overridden Syrian regime military positions and has taken control of most of Aleppo and Idlib governorates. The frontlines remain active in northern Hama.

The lightning attack of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) in the past week and its success in capturing Aleppo and more than doubling the size of the area under its control highlights the significant strides HTS and its civilian arm, the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG), made in the past years in developing their military and governance capabilities: from producing drones, establishing a military academy, setting up a proto central banking entity, or issuing a weekly official gazette.

The sweeping military attack launched last week by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) is due to shifts in internal and external dynamics that led to a window of opportunity that the anti-Assad armed groups have seized, managing to double their area of control in five days.

The surrender of Aleppo by Assad soldiers represents perhaps the regime's most significant defeat, not only militarily but also economically and politically.

Since the catastrophic earthquakes devastated parts of northern Syria one week ago, killing 5,800 people, injuring thousands, leaving 5.30 million homeless, and destroying infrastructure and residential buildings, the regime, opposition authorities, and local organisations began carrying out disaster relief efforts in affected areas. 

The Syrian government has seized the February 06 earthquake as an opportunity to call on Western governments to lift sanctions on Syria, claiming that they have severely impeded emergency response and humanitarian relief efforts to assist affected communities.

Despite the need for an emergency response after the earthquake, aid to opposition-held areas in Northwest Syria has been minimal and highly politicised, causing outrage. 

Almost ten days after the earthquake, little information or data is available about the economic impact of this event.

The Central Bank of Syria recently devalued the exchange rate for incoming remittances, bringing it closer to the black market rate. After the earthquake, it also enabled UN agencies and humanitarian organisations to use the new rate for earthquake-related donations and funds. 

This chart provides an overview of the number of planes and truck convoys carrying humanitarian aid that reached Syria between February 06 and 14.

Over 6,000 people have been killed and more than 26,000 injured after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake and aftershocks, the largest of which was 7.6 in magnitude, struck southern Turkey and northern Syria within a space of 12 hours in the early morning of February 06. 

The earthquake that struck Syria on February 06 will significantly impact the country’s economic activity, which is already suffering from a series of serious challenges.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake at the Syria-Turkey border on February 06 is the strongest to have struck Syria for more than eight hundred years.

Governments and international organisations worldwide have offered aid and assistance to Syria after the recent earthquake. However, aid response and coordination efforts have been hampered by the destruction of roads and highways, weather conditions, fuel shortages, and territorial fragmentation across regime-opposition political lines, among other things.

This chart provides an overview of the number of seismic events recorded in Syria between 1995 and 2021.

A selection of reports, papers, and articles on Syria.

Recent months have confirmed the increased influence of Bashar Al-Assad and Asma Al-Assad over the country’s economy. Almost every other week, new information emerges indicating that businesspeople known for acting as fronts for the Syrian president and his wife have acquired stakes in a company or business project. With unrivalled economic power in their hands, this represents a major turn in how wealth is shared and distributed among Syria’s rulers.