ع
Sections
  • Politics
  • Culture & Social Affairs
  • Business & Economy
  • Science & Technology
  • Documents & Memoirs
Regions
  • Gulf
  • MENA
  • Europe
  • USA
  • Asia
  • World
More
  • Videos
  • Cartoons
  • World in photos
  • Infographics
  • Profiles
  • Newsletter

LATEST ISSUE

Latest Issue
Magazine Archive
النسخة العربية
  • Politics
  • Culture & Social Affairs
  • Business & Economy
  • Science & Technology
  • Tag
  • Syrian economy

LOUAI BESHARA / AFP
Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP
A worker pushes a hand truck past a shop selling spices at the old market in Damascus ahead of the Eid al-Adha holiday on 26 May 2026. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP

Syria’s private-sector workers are finding their voice

Recent strikes show how workers are beginning to use Syria's expanded civic space to make economic and social demands. The government should see this as a warning, but also an opportunity.

Haid Haid 24 June 2026
Eduardo Ramon

The return of Al-Jazira and the question of Syria’s economic renewal

As Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, and Al-Hasakah return to state authority, this resource-rich region re-emerges as a cornerstone of economic recovery

Hussein al-Sharaa 06 February 2026
Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) speaks during the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh on 29 October 2025. RANIA SANJAR / AFP

Syria's obstacles to investment are many

Ambition is key to recovery, but so is realism about the road ahead. Lingering sanctions, legal ambiguity, poor transparency, and weak institutions continue to deter serious investment.

Haid Haid 20 November 2025
A sheep herder near the Rumaylan military site in northeastern Syria, January 8, 2025 AFP

Resource-rich yet underdeveloped, Syria’s northeast could pay dividends

The land between the Euphrates and Tigris yields oil, water, and wheat, to name but three, yet it has had no infrastructure investment for decades. As a result, it is unproductive. That could change.

Attiya Khalaf Al-Attiya 11 February 2025
Stacks of Syrian pound banknotes are piled on a currency trader's stall at a market in the city of Manbij, currently controlled by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, in the Aleppo province on January 4, 2025. Aaref WATAD / AFP

Sanctions relief alone won’t kickstart Syria's economy

Without a coordinated international effort to lift sanctions, Syria will struggle to secure foreign investment

Léa Eid 10 February 2025
A US dollar note is placed on a stack of Syrian pounds at a market in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeast Syria on September 10, 2019. AFP / Delil SOULEIMAN

Rebuilding Syria's economy will be challenging but comes with reward

Estimates of reconstruction costs range up to $500bn, and most Syrians only get a few hours of electricity per day. The country's priorities are numerous and urgent, but amid the gloom, there is hope.

Abdelkader Hasria 27 January 2025
Dr Maysa Sabrin, Syria's newly-appointed central bank governor Axel Rangel Garcia

Syria becomes first Arab state with woman central bank chief

Maysa Sabrin joins illustrious figures such as Russia's Elvira Nabiullina, Europe's Christine Lagarde, and America's Janet Yellen, proving women heading central banks is no longer a rarity

Toufic Chanbour 16 January 2025
A container crane at the port of Latakia in western Syria on 30 December 2024. Aaref Watad / AFP

Syria’s new rulers to audit Iran loan spending for illegalities

While financial obligations outlive regimes, Damascus may be able to show that some of the $7.6bn in loans from Tehran was spent repressing the Syrian people—and that Iran knew about it

Joseph Daher 31 December 2024
A man looks out to the devastation while clearing rubble and debris from a house at the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees south of Damascus on December 22, 2024. MUHAMMAD HAJ KADOUR / AFP

Syria begins to piece together a country and economy in ruins

War caused its GDP to fall by 86%, leaving 69% of Syrians impoverished. Regime change brings hope for an economy once one of the Middle East's strongest. This is its story and a look ahead.

Abdulfattah Khattab 24 December 2024
Syrian Red Crescent rescuers attend to displaced people arriving from Lebanon at the Jdeidat Yabus border crossing in southwestern Syria on October 7, 2024. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP

War in Lebanon puts Syria's already struggling economy under further strain

Syria's deep economic reliance on Lebanon, shaped by years of conflict and international sanctions, has made regime-held areas particularly vulnerable to Lebanon's economic and political instability

Haid Haid 13 October 2024
  •  Load More
  • Popular
  • Editor's Pick
Al Majalla/Reuters
Politics

A Houthi takeover of Bab al-Mandab cannot be tolerated

12 September 2026

The Iran-backed group's effective takeover of Yemen's western coast comes with serious regional and global implications. The world needs to act.

Alice Gower
Pete Reynolds
Politics

Inside Assad’s nuclear secrets

09 September 2026

Al Majalla reveals the structure of Syria's nuclear programme 19 years after Israel bombed the Al-Kibar reactor, detailing the involvement of other states and the assassinations that followed

Al Majalla - London
Underwater image of a diver among fish at the North Seymour Island dive site in the Galapagos archipelago, Ecuador, taken on 8 March 2024. ERNESTO BENAVIDES / AFP
Business & Economy

The global race for rare earths reaches the ocean floor

07 September 2026

A critical mineral found on Japan's seabed has caught US attention, and the two are teaming up to see whether it can yield future benefits and reduce their dependence on China

Abdulfattah Khattab
Al Majalla/Reuters
Politics

The murky origins of al-Qaeda explained

09 September 2026

Thousands of Muslim volunteers flocked to Afghanistan in 1979 to fight the Soviets in response to a rallying cry, aided by the largest covert operation in CIA history

Steve Hewitt
Susan Sarandon in Echo Chamber ANDREA MICONI
Culture & Social Affairs

Susan Sarandon on fear, freedom, and refusing to change

08 September 2026

The renowned American actress tells Al Majalla about her gnawing drive for justice at the Venice Film Festival, where her new film 'Echo Chamber' premiered

Leila Amar

Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter

Get the best of Al Majalla, straight to your inbox.

Your newsletter subscriptions are subject to Al Majalla privacy policy and terms and conditions.

OPINIONS

Will AI destroy mankind?

Fares Garabet
Fares Garabet

Francesca Albanese: the Palestine question is a global one

Elie Kossaifi
Elie Kossaifi

'NAZA' and the battle over who gets to tell the story

Samer Abou Hawwach
Samer Abou Hawwach

Is climate change changing the taste of cheese?

Alaa Emara
MORE FROM OPINIONS
logo
  • Politics
  • Culture & Social Affairs
  • Business & Economy
  • Science & Technology
  • Documents & Memoirs
  • Gulf
  • MENA
  • Europe
  • USA
  • Asia
  • World
  • Videos
  • Cartoons
  • World in photos
  • Infographics
  • Profiles
  • About Al Majalla
  • Al Majalla Team
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact us
logo

© Al Majalla Magazine. All Rights Reserved.

0:00:00
0:00:00