Syria retains 26 tons of gold reserves after Assad's fall: sources | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Epaper
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Banking
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Tuesday
June 03, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Epaper
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Banking
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
TUESDAY, JUNE 03, 2025
Syria retains 26 tons of gold reserves after Assad's fall: sources

Middle East

Reuters
17 December, 2024, 11:50 am
Last modified: 17 December, 2024, 01:10 pm

Related News

  • US gives nod to Syria to bring foreign jihadist ex-rebels into army
  • Saudi Arabia, Qatar to provide financial support to Syria's state employees: Saudi foreign minister
  • Syrian Kurdish commander in touch with Turkey, open to meeting Erdogan
  • EU lifts economic sanctions on Syria
  • Syria and Israel in direct talks focused on security: sources

Syria retains 26 tons of gold reserves after Assad's fall: sources

Syria's gold reserves stood at 25.8 tons in June 2011, according to the World Gold Council, which cites the Central Bank of Syria as its data source. That is worth $2.2 billion at current market prices, according to Reuters calculations

Reuters
17 December, 2024, 11:50 am
Last modified: 17 December, 2024, 01:10 pm
People and cars are seen in front of the Central Bank of Syria, after rebels seized the capital and ousted Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria December 11, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo
People and cars are seen in front of the Central Bank of Syria, after rebels seized the capital and ousted Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria December 11, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo

The vault of Syria's central bank holds nearly 26 tons of gold, the same amount it had at the start of its bloody civil war in 2011, even after the chaotic fall of Bashar al-Assad's despotic regime, four people familiar with the situation told Reuters.

But the country has only a small amount of foreign currency reserves in cash, the same people said.

Syria's gold reserves stood at 25.8 tons in June 2011, according to the World Gold Council, which cites the Central Bank of Syria as its data source. That is worth $2.2 billion at current market prices, according to Reuters calculations.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

The central bank's foreign exchange reserves amount, however, to just around $200 million in cash, one of the sources told Reuters, while another said the US dollar reserves were "in the hundreds of millions".

While not all reserves would be held in cash, the drop is substantial compared with before the war. At the end of 2011, Syria's central bank reported $14 billion in foreign reserves, according to the International Monetary Fund. In 2010, the IMF had estimated Syria's foreign reserves to stand at $18.5 billion.

The dollar reserves have been nearly depleted because the regime increasingly used them to fund food, fuel and Assad's war effort, current and former Syrian officials have told Reuters.

Media representatives for Syria's new ruling administration and for the Central Bank of Syria did not respond to Reuters requests for comment regarding the size of the central bank's reserves.

Syria stopped sharing financial information with the IMF, the World Bank and other international organisations soon after the Assad regime put down pro-democracy protests in 2011 in a crackdown that spiralled into civil war.

Syria's new government, led by former rebels, is still taking stock of the country's assets after Assad fled to Russia on Dec. 8. Looters briefly accessed parts of the central bank, taking Syrian pounds with them, but did not breach the main vault, Reuters reported.

Some of what was stolen was then returned by Syria's new rulers, Syrian officials told Reuters.

The vault is bomb-proof and requires three keys, each held by a different person, and a combination code to be opened, said one of the sources.

The vault was inspected by members of Syria's new administration last week, two sources said, days after the rebels took control of the Syrian capital Damascus in a lightning offensive that ended more than 50 years of rule by the Assad family.

Led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, a former Al Qaeda affiliate that has long-since disavowed those ties, the new administration has quickly set up a government and is consolidating control of state institutions.

Reuters could not access the central bank vaults.

BACK AT WORK

The central bank's headquarters, a broad white building in central Damascus, fully reopened on Sunday, the first day of the working week in Syria.

It was teeming with employees as well as people looking to access dollars, while others were carrying out sacks full of Syrian pounds.

Besides its meagre US dollar reserves, the Syrian central bank can currently count on several hundred million dollars' worth of Syrian pounds in its reserves, one source said.

New foreign currency inflows dwindled because Syria lost its main source of foreign income, crude oil, when Kurdish fighters and other armed groups seized the fields in the east of the country during the course of the war.

Syria has also been targeted by strict Western sanctions and the United States has sanctioned the central bank itself and blacklisted several of its governors.

But the sources familiar with the situation told Reuters the gold was never liquidated in order to keep sufficient collateral for the Syrian pounds circulating in the market.

The Syrian local currency has depreciated from around 50 pounds per dollar before the war to around 12,500 as of Monday.

Syria's new administration has demanded the lifting of international sanctions to revitalize the economy, rebuild the country from years of war and encourage millions of Syrian refugees to return.

But US and European officials have said they will have to wait and see what kind of administration the country's new Islamist rulers put in place.

Top News / World+Biz

syria / Gold Reserve

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Illustration: TBS
    Govt raises special incentive for employees to 15% from July
  • Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus presides over the second round dialogue of the National Consensus Commission with the political parties in Dhaka on 2 June 2025. Photo: CA Press Wing
    2nd round of talks: Consensus Commission starts second phase of meetings with 30 political parties
  • Proposed budget in line with estimates, but below expectations: CPD's Mustafizur
    Proposed budget in line with estimates, but below expectations: CPD's Mustafizur

MOST VIEWED

  • A top shot of Dhaka city. The photo was taken from the Gulshan area in the capital. Photo: TBS
    Budget FY26: Housing sector may take a hit, flat prices set to rise
  • Bold taxation but conventional expenditures
    Bold taxation but conventional expenditures
  • Budget FY26: AmCham says increasing advance tax to 7.5% will be 'punishing for all businesses, customers'
    Budget FY26: AmCham says increasing advance tax to 7.5% will be 'punishing for all businesses, customers'
  • Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed presents the national budget for FY2025-26 in a televised speech on 2 June 2025. Photo: PID
    Budget gives special priority to employment-oriented education: Salehuddin
  • Illustration: TBS
    A budget that shrinks to fit
  • 17 makeshift cattle markets leased in Dhaka for Eid: Who gets the most
    17 makeshift cattle markets leased in Dhaka for Eid: Who gets the most

Related News

  • US gives nod to Syria to bring foreign jihadist ex-rebels into army
  • Saudi Arabia, Qatar to provide financial support to Syria's state employees: Saudi foreign minister
  • Syrian Kurdish commander in touch with Turkey, open to meeting Erdogan
  • EU lifts economic sanctions on Syria
  • Syria and Israel in direct talks focused on security: sources

Features

Illustration: TBS

The GOAT of all goats!

10h | Magazine
Photo: Nayem Ali

Eid-ul-Adha cattle markets

11h | Magazine
Sketch: TBS

Budget FY26: What corporate Bangladesh expects

1d | Budget
The customers in super shops are carrying their purchases in alternative bags or free paper bags. Photo: Mehedi Hasan

Super shops leading the way in polythene ban implementation

1d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Several villages flooded in Mymensingh

Several villages flooded in Mymensingh

35m | TBS Stories
No tax on Nobel Prize

No tax on Nobel Prize

1h | Others
Why is National Bank turning to the central bank for support?

Why is National Bank turning to the central bank for support?

2h | TBS Programs
In loneliness, prison becomes the refuge for Japan's elderly women!

In loneliness, prison becomes the refuge for Japan's elderly women!

3h | Others
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net