According to an [account in Reuters,](https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/syrias-new-rulers-back-shift-free-market-economy-business-leader-says-2024-12-10/” big changes are coming to the Syrian economy, and they will be very much to the liking of Wall Street and other “investors.”
“It will be a free-market system based on competition,” Bassel Hamwi, head of the Damascus Chambers of Commerce, told Reuters in an interview.
Reuters explained: “Syria has long imposed strict controls on imports and exports, using an arcane system that requires traders to get permissions for imports and then deposit Syrian pounds at the central bank in exchange for dollars… Independently trading in foreign currencies could previously land someone in jail, but has become common practice in everyday transactions since Assad’s ouster.”
