A reporter in Idlib has told al-Iqtissadi that the price of basic foodstuffs has shot up dramatically with the rise in the dollar exchange rate to more than 200 SP and the Turkish Lira to 110 SP.
Residents complained of an unprecedented rise in prices, citing the price of one kilogram of rice as having exceeded 170 SP, potato at 150 SP, sugar at 120 SP, garlic at 100 SP, watermelon at 40 SP, and Shawerma at 1,600 SP. A fried chicken is now 1,000 SP and a 16 kilogram oil tank is 5,000 SP.
Meanwhile baby's diapers are now over 600 SP, while half a kilogram of babies' milk has passed 1,200 SP.
Coins have lost their value in those regions, while the price of a can of Coca Cola can reach as much as 70 SP. Even the cheapest candies are now 20 SP.
Merchants from those regions link the rise in prices with the rise in the Turkish Lira exchange rate against the Syrian Pound, saying people there are dependent on Turkish goods after Syrian factories closed down.
The reporter said that the majority of the people in the regions would classify as falling below the poverty line, due to their inability to buy even their daily food requirements.
A housewife told al-Iqtissadi that "we stopped making salad dishes because the price of ingredients has reached 600 SP, a small calculation allowed us to conclude that the salary of any employee, earning an average of 400 SP, would not enable him to eat a salad dish daily, let alone get access to basic family needs including gas, milk and water.”
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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