Syria trying to ensure stable Syrian pound with intervention

After more than six months of inaction and many repetitive confirmations that it would interfere to control prices on the black market, the Central Bank of Syria ( CBS) said it will interfere by the beginning of the next week.The governor of the CBS Adib Mayaleh said his bank will remain the basic player in the foreign exchange market where it will positively interfere to correct any "deviation "in the price of the Syrian pound exchange."The central bank will sell the foreign currency to the banks and exchange institutions by the prices that it will see fit in a way to guarantee a Syrian stable pound," Mayaleh said in a statement issued on Thursday.He added that the first process of the bank's interference in the market dealings will start at the beginning of the next week.Mayaleh affirmed that the central bank's reserves of the foreign currency are strong.However, media reports suggested that the bank's reserves, which were estimated at 18 billion U.S. dollars two years ago, now stands at no more than four billion dollars. And it took the bank several months before deciding to interfere out of concerns that the country's reserve of hard currency might drain.The U.S. dollar's exchange rate against the pound has broken the record on Wednesday and was sold on the black market at 120 pounds.Last month, the pound sharply depreciated against the dollar and registered the highest rate it has ever reached since the outbreak of the crisis in the country two years ago. It was sold at 125 pounds on the black market but the government's confirmation that it will intervene had caused an immediate decline by 10 pounds.Experts blamed the government's inaction and failure to revamp the policy of intervention it had often used throughout the past two years.Yet, the economists believe that the government would live up to its pledge this time and would work hard to prop up the price of the pound in order to placate the people's concerns and mounting complaints over soaring prices of consumer items which have recently tripled.Most of the food items have become out of reach for many Syrians as their salaries are still unchanged and prices skyrocketed.For example, one kilogram of cucumber is now sold at 150 pounds, up from 35 pounds at the beginning of the crisis.