CBS injects USD 20 million for sale to restore stability in exchange market

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Damascus, SANA – The Central Bank of Syria (CBS) held Tuesday an emergency session to discuss the inflated exchange rate witnessed recently in the black market, during which it injected USD 20 million for sale to exchange institutions.

CBS Governor Adib Mayala said in a statement to SANA that a package of emergency measures has been taken to reduce instability at the market, including increasing the scale of intervention and money injections and allowing exchange company to keep 30% instead of 20% of the foreign currency transfers they receive.

The 10% increase, Mayala noted, will be used to meet demands for commercial purposes only, while the original 20% will continue to be used to meet demands for both commercial and non-commercial purposes, he added.

Among the emergency measures is allowing exchange companies to ask the CBS for foreign currency to fund imports “to avoid any funding gaps in the market and allow no room for speculation on exchange rate.”

Exchange offices and companies, the Governor said, are also allowed to finance transactions using their own foreign currency resources.

Mayala stressed that the CBS will continue to finance all importers’ demands for foreign currency through the licensed banks and at subsidized prices.

He also affirmed that the Bank is committed to taking immediate “intervention steps to restore stability to the market and exchange rates and prevent speculators from “exploiting emergent and unexpected factors to destabilize exchange rates and promote unreal price levels.”

For their parts, representatives of exchange companies and institutions who attended the meeting attributed the recent drop in exchange rates to “the speculative activity in the black market, that has been coupled with media hype practiced by some outlets in which unreal rates were promoted.”

They pointed out that they intend to launch a new website and a social media page on which they will circulate the real exchange rates set in the market.

Haifa Said / Hazem Sabbagh