Feature: Syrians face soaring commodity prices, economic hardship

Working three jobs to cater to his family of six, Marwan Al-Sheikh said he is now stretched thin due to the astounding economic hardship in Syria, whose crisis persists with no sign of tapering down.

"There is no way I can put food on the table without working 16 hours a day, sometimes more," al-Sheikh said. "Everything has become insanely expensive and I have no other option but to work."

"Things have dramatically changed. I used to have one job and everything was fine, but not anymore," al-Sheikh added.

Al-Sheikh, 50, is probably luckier than most Syrians struggling to maintain one job in a country with high unemployment and unprecedented inflation.

Official estimates put the jobless rate at 36 percent and inflation at 147 percent in 2014. Some unofficial estimates place unemployment rates at over 50 percent.

Al-Sheikh goes to work as a state employee in the morning and takes the afternoons off driving his hired taxi cab, before heading in the evening to a restaurant where he is a cashier.

His eldest son, Ahmad, studies economics at Damascus University, hoping to graduate this year to find a job, also a challenge, to help his father with life's burdens.

"I am really sad for my father. He returns home grumpy and exhausted. I really need to help but I know that it won't be easy," Ahmad said.

A stunningly rapid depreciation of the Syrian pound has wreaked havoc on Syrian streets, particularly this April.

The local currency, at one sixth of its prewar value at the beginning of April, dropped a further 11 percent in the past few days.

The pound's devaluation has had a major impact on commodity prices in the market, which rose to unprecedented levels since the beginning of the crisis in mid-March 2011.

Syrians on social media scoffed at the current situation. Some started posting photos of bananas and apples with captions reading "one kilo of banana can be exchanged for a house in al-Malki," an upscale neighborhood in Damascus where an average house could sell for 1 million U.S. dollars.

Local media reports said Thursday that prices of commodities are "jumping dangerously high, scorching citizens' pockets."

A report on the al-Eqtisadi economic website said prices of commodities have increased between 40 and 50 percent compared to the previous month, except for dairy products.

With this price hike, most Syrians struggle to make ends meet and their attempts to do so forced them to stick to the very basics.

"One salary cannot secure basic needs and if it was not for my night job I would have starved along with my family," said Ahmad Shawish, a 35-year-old shop owner.

Shawish, who works at the Bab al-Jabiyeh marketplace in the old quarter of Damascus, said the price hike is related to the unsettled exchange rate.

However, the Citizen Protection Association (CPA), a governmental establishment, blames merchants as partly responsible for the higher prices.

"Merchants use the exchange rate as a pretext to increase prices," al-Eqtisadi reported, saying that CPA inspection patrols are ramping up their presence in Damascus to prevent overpricing by merchants and shop owners.

Meanwhile, authorities began Wednesday pumping large quantities of US dollars into the market to prevent further depreciation of the Syrian pound, State news agency SANA reported.

The central bank of Syria said it would try to restore the pound's value to "acceptable levels."

It said last week that it had "unconventional" methods, such as raising the amount of dollars importers can purchase for import purposes, from 150,000 dollars to 300,000 dollars each, to halt the rapid decline of the Syrian pound.

Hayan al-Aldla, an economist, told Xinhua that the move aims to allow importers to purchase larger amounts of dollars from authorized exchange companies and banks to prevent them from buying foreign currencies from the black market, a move which would help restore the Syrian pound to acceptable levels.

He said the move would also allow more goods into the country, helping to stabilize skyrocketing commodity prices and preventing retailers from monopolizing the market.

It remains to be seen whether these measures would help tame price hikes and restore the Syrian pound anytime soon.

Indeed, all economic sectors are suffering from the Syrian crisis.

Deputy Minister of Economy Hayan Salman told Xinhua by phone that the country's production of crude oil has declined from 385,000 barrels per day ahead of the crisis to around 9,000 barrels per day now.

Syria used to produce 4 million tons of wheat annually, but due to "criminal acts," production had been cut in half, he said.

Agricultural output fell by 80 percent while tourism earnings dropped 96 percent, as compared with 2010, the minister said.

According to the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the Syrian economy suffered a total loss of 202.6 billion dollars from the beginning of the crisis in 2011 to the end of 2014. Endit