Tonight, I'm going to give you a quick insight of what's happening in Syria by talking about the new banknote.
Well, if some of you are looking at the pictures, you must be thinking it's the Syrian Bitcoin. Or the Assadcoin.
Actually, Bashar al-Assad appears on Syrian banknotes for the first time ever.
Syria's Central Bank announced this weekend that it was introducing a new banknote — a 2,000-pound bill worth roughly $4 — because of “wear and tear” on the currency already in circulation. Noted in state media's coverage of the new note, however, is an important design detail: For the first time, a portrait of President Bashar al-Assad is being featured on Syrian money.
Assad has been president of Syria since 2000, when he succeeded his father, Hafez al-Assad. Trained as an ophthalmologist, Bashar al-Assad was initially seen as a potential reformer. However, he has since been accused of human rights violations. Since 2011, Syria has been locked in a brutal and intractable conflict.
In the past, Syria's banknotes have tended to feature Hafez al-Assad or historical figures or sites. The portraits on the banknotes have attracted considerable attention in the past, given their political implications. In 2015, pro-government social media accounts urged a boycott of a new 1,000-pound bill after an image of Hafez al-Assad was removed from it.
The introduction of the new 2,000-pound bill might seem to suggest economic weakness. The note is the highest denomination yet for the Syrian pound, a recognition that since the conflict in the country began, the value of the Syrian currency has dropped from about 47 pounds to the dollar in 2011 to more than 500 pounds to the dollar this year. Many Syrians quickly found that their hard-earned savings were being rendered worthless, with the threat that hyperinflation could soon make things even worse.
Yet counterintuitively, the government portrayed the new bill as a sign of stabilization. According to the official Syrian Arab News Agency, the Central Bank governor, Duraid Dergham, told reporters on Sunday that the plan for the 2,000-pound bill had actually been approved years ago but implemented only recently after exchange-rate fluctuations slowed down. Dergham also said that there was “no need to panic” that the bill could worsen the inflation.
