Syria trying to deal with budget challenge due to diminished oil

Governor of the Central Bank of Syria announced on Tuesday that the International Monetary Fund report on the Syrian economy has called to face the challenge of the budget situation in light of degraded oil reserves.

"The IMF called to make this point the focus of the Syrian economic policies as to deal with the budget situation taking into consideration the retreating oil surplus," the Governor of the CBS Adib Mayaleh commented on the report which was recently published.

He noted the report also urged to accelerate implementation of the structural reform program to raise economic growth by diversification and widening the base of production as well as increasing exports before depletion of oil resources.

The governor said that an annual growth rate of no less than 4.5 percent is needed in order to absorb the growing population and its employment needs.

He noted the IMF mission last April concentrated on restructuring the financial and banking public sector in Syria, and called for having the central bank play the traditional role played by institutions, and to make more institutional reforms as part of an integrated program, together with putting down a comprehensive program for the government financial reform to face challenges coming in the mid-term.

Adib Mayaleh noted that the economic committee in the government has ratified the report publication due to the "transparency principal," importance to evaluate the performance, or to speak about expected problems as well as to find solutions for them.

Syria has recently approved to transform and collect all the foreign reserve in the central bank and received a mission of technical aid from the IMF to define the needed mechanism.