Syria

ECONOMY

            The main components of the Syrian economy are agriculture and oil. In the agricultural sector, cotton

            is the principal commodity and a key export. Wheat, barley, fruit and vegetables are the other main

            products, the bulk of which are grown for domestic consumption. Oil is the main industry and provides two-thirds

            of Syrian export earnings, although the future of the sector is limited by the relatively small size of Syria’s reserves

            (which are already half-exhausted). There are also reserves of phosphates (another export earner), iron ore and

            natural gas. The rest of the industrial economy is divided roughly between three areas: chemicals, rubber and

            plastics; textiles and leather goods; and food and drink. The service economy is under-developed. Tourism , in

            particular, has huge potential. Syria receives hundreds of thousends visitors annually.

            At the start of the 1990s, the Syrian economy was largely state-controlled, has virtually no foreign debt, which is a

            major (and fairly unusual) economic advantage. The Government has introduced many market-oriented reforms. A

            high priority for the new government of Basil al-Assad is to accelerate the reform process in order to attract

            foreign investment which Syria needs to drive future economic development: Syria also has a young and fast

            growing

            population: some economists estimate that the country needs annual growth of around seven per cent to absorb

            the new entrants into the labour force.  Syria’s main trading partners are Turkey and the main EU economies,  

            particularly Germany, Italy and Spain.

Syrian mineral deposits consist mainly of petroleum, natural gas, phosphates, salt and asphalt. Mountain areas contain some coal, iron ore, copper, gold and lead, but these are in small quantities.

Early industrial activity in Syria was based on the processing of agricultural products, but this changed in the 1970s, with a governmental policy of rapid industrialization, when tariffs were raised on imported consumer goods. As a result, industrial output increased dramatically, particularly in such areas as iron and steel and the annual growth rate is now more than 10%. Fertilizers, chemicals and the assembly of domestic appliances, such as refrigerators and televisions now form part of Syria's industrial programme.

The major manufacturing industry in Syria is the production of cotton and silk textiles. Cement production is also important and growing industries include glass, soap, flour, vegetable oil and tobacco.

Annual production of petroleum products is about 10 million metric tones.

About 20% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) comes from industry.

Much of the tilled land needs to be irrigated, even in regions which receive large amounts of rainfall, because most of the rain falls during the winter, rather than in the growing season. 

Syria manages to produce a wide variety of crops, nonetheless, both for domestic use and for export. Cotton was the major export crop until the oil boom in the mid-1970s and once accounted for more than half the country's export revenues. Wheat and barley are also important crops. Others include olives, tobacco, citrus fruits, vegetables and sugar beet. Livestock mainly consists of sheep and goats, which are herded in the mountain areas.

The best farmland is to be found in the coastal region and in the river valleys.