Bank lines stretch as cash crisis hits Syria

Standing in the dilapidated ATM hall of his bank, Maher Elias huffed a sigh equal parts exasperation and exhaustion.

- BY NABIH BULOS

A CROWD gathers at the Foreign Exchange Center in Damascus during the country's liquidity shortage.

Around him were lines dozens of people deep, all of them, like the 59-year-old Elias, waiting in the sweltering heat to withdraw cash.

Ahead of him was a wait of at least three hours — assuming the ATM didn't shut down from electricity cuts or run out of bills. On one of the hottest days in the Damascene summer, his words interrupted by the occasional argument between other vexed patrons, Elias spoke while his eyes remained fixated on the front of the slow-moving queue.

"All this waiting, and for what?" he said, wiping the sweat from his brow. He could withdraw only 200,000 Syrian pounds (around $20) for the week.

“And we're five people in my family. Between food, gas and rent, how long do you think that lasts?”

Elias and the hundreds of others queuing in the lines that spilled out to the sidewalk of the Real Estate Bank of Syria were taking part in an often quixotic quest, as millions of Syrians contend with a cash crunch that resulted after former President Bashar Assad was toppled and a rebelled government came in his stead.

For months now, withdrawing money has become almost a second job, with employees forced to take off from work to queue in front of banks, even as the lack of liquidity is strangling a ravaged economy struggling to shuffle off nearly 14 years of civil war.

And the worst part for Elias (and many others) was he would have to do it all over again another day so he could collect all of his 500,000 Syrian pound monthly salary —a little less than $50.