Syrians' campaign to boycott foodstuffs to protest soaring prices

Syrians have started boycotting some basic foodstuffs to protest the skyrocketing prices of most commodities in the unrest-torn country. A Facebook page has been recently promoting a campaign dubbed " I want to live," which calls on Syrians to boycott all goods with high prices for one week starting Sunday. "We swear by Almighty God that we are going to share our honest Syrian compatriots' expression of dissatisfaction with the high prices, the monopoly of traders, the high cost of the dollar and the government's failure to regulate the markets," said one post on the page. "Starting on July 7, I will cut dairy, eggs and chicken for a week and this period is renewable in case dealers do not cut their crazy and illogical prices... We want to cut the prices of all kinds of goods quickly by not less than 25 percent as living conditions have become very bad," another post read. The price of a 24-egg cartoon went up from 150 Syrian pounds to 480 Syrian pounds and one kg of chicken increased from 500 to 950 Syrian pounds. The online campaign may not resonate with many Syrians who find themselves obliged to by these stuffs for the children, but Amira, a housewife, said she will commit herself to the boycott campaign. She told Xinhua while buying some vegetables that she will do this "simply because I don't want to buy and basically have no money to buy such expensive stuff." "We have abandoned many foodstuffs whose prices are unaffordable for us," she lamented, adding "we hope that the government would soon intervene to bring prices back to normal levels." The prices of all foodstuffs and other commodities have sharply increased few days ahead of the start of the holy month of Ramadan, during which Syrians' demand on foodstuffs, drinks and sweets dramatically increased. The exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against the Syrian pound in the black market also increased from around 190 Syrian pounds 10 days ago to 240 Syrian pounds Sunday. The exchange rate of the Syrian pound was 47 Syrian pound ahead of the crisis. Economists blame the currency's dive on the sanctions imposed by world powers on Syria to speed up the overthrow of the Syrian government. However, some others suggest that the migration of billions of U.S. dollars outside the country has largely contributed in the depreciation of the Syrian pound. A recent report disclosed by the Beirut-based bureau of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia said that some 11 billion Syrian pounds have been deposited in Lebanese banks, adding that another one billion dollars buoyed the Lebanese economy through Syrian consumers' spending. Some monetary experts appealed to the government to implement the procedures applied in the 1980s when the dollar exchange rate jumped from three Syrian pounds to about 50 Syrian pounds within a short period. At that time, the government prohibited dealing in dollars and tightened sanctions on money exchanging without a license as well as transporting foreign exchanges or national currency in and out of Syria without authorization.