Economy Minister: Exports Doubled in 2014

DAMASCUS,(ST) -The Ministry of Economy and Foreign Trade said it would host next week, the researchers who prepared the final report issued by the Syrian Center of Policy Research in cooperation with the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees “UNRWA” and the United Nations Development Programme on the effects of the Syrian crisis during the year 2014 to explain and clarify the information that the report contained because the figure -based research and statistical methodology that was adopted led to misleading results in the analysis and reasoning.

The Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade, Dr. Hammam al –Jazairi, said in a statement to local press that the ministry is interested in the economic and social reports issued by the center during the last period being characterized by a large and clear effort in the setup, but the reports issued by the local or international research centers suffer from a scientific and statistical real limits imposed by the crisis due to lack of proper economic indicator in front of research centers, so the researchers are opted to adopt assumptions help to complete the search and based upon mathematical models in analysis and reasoning.

Dr. al -Jazairi explained that the estimate of the cost of damage on infrastructure, industrial and production in Syria is subject to the several standards in the evaluation and every standard produces different costs of the damage and meets the need of the researcher and the goal he aspires to, but estimates of the trade deficit in the balance of payments was misleading in the report, although unintentional, stressing that exports and imports are governed by an administrative guideline prices that determine their values, regardless of the true value of the number of exports.

He pointed out that the price per kilogram of exported clothing comes with an estimated value price of between $ 2,5 and $ 3, while the range and average real value of between $ 20 and $ 22, and the dozen of exported leather are priced at $ 30, noting that the true value of up to $ 160 which means the rise of the real value of exports from the nominal value at varying degrees, according to article.

Dr. al -Jazairi explained that the true figure for exports is much higher than the official statistical figure and confirms that the estimates of the balance of payments deficit in the report is wrong estimates and must be based on the equation of the official figure, multiplied by necessary correction factor .

He revealed that the Syrian economy grew for the first time during the crisis in 2014, based on the gradual recovery in the manufacturing sector, exports, expansion of the commercial sector, increasing in investment spending, which focuses on agricultural and industrial production sectors through reconstruction and compensation committee for damages.

Dr. al -Jazairi confirmed that exports doubled in 2014 compared with the year 2013 and the imports attained growth reached to achieve 65 percent of the total imports during the last quarter of 2014.

“The imports of feed, crude oil, supplies of medicine, wood and strings are basic materials of total imports and this is a real positive developments in the economic structure during the crisis that led to the establishment of economic recovery, a slow steady recovery led to the increase and expansion in the production of textiles and clothing, pharmaceuticals and food in addition to the production of the agricultural sector, in addition to an improvement in transport and trade movement within the country between the cities and towns from inside and outside Syria to “import, export and transit traffic” and vice versa, especially with the improvement of Syrian non-oil exports volume,” the minister added.

He believed that the biggest challenge for the economy remains the subject of ensuring energy in the hope that the verification measures taken by the government and strategic alternatives that work on the development and activation the elements of broader economic growth in 2015 and a gradual improvement in the standard of living.

Sharif al -Khatib