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RAQQA, Syria — Residents of the war-torn Syrian city of Raqqa are decrying the continued plummet of the Syrian pound after it hit an all-time low against the US dollar this week.
Before the uprising began in 2011, one US dollar was worth around 45 pounds. A dollar is now worth 4,700 pounds on the black market, decimating the salaries of locals and making imported essentials unaffordable.
"One single sandwich is 1,500 to 2,000 pounds. What is a sandwich? Can someone survive on a sandwich?" local resident Eliya Ahmed said on Wednesday.
"The price of everything has gone up. One kilo of sugar is 5,000 pounds. Where can we get this amount of money?" said Necmiya Mohammed.
"My daughters are starving to death. I wish they would rather die than live miserably," she added.
Traders sell their products to shops in dollars, but customers, often civil servants, are paid in pounds.
Local authorities in Raqqa said they can't do much to help.
"We cannot change the plummet of the Syrian currency. But we have established an office called customer protection management. This office is designed to defend the public against any possible exploitation of the market by traders and an increase in the price of items," said Reshad Kurdo, co-chair of Raqqa's economy board in Raqqa.
However, officials in the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES) have previously said they have done their best to balance the market.
Translation by Zhelwan Zeyad Wali
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