Unprecedented rise of dollar escalate the resentment of Manbij population

Manbij – North-Press Agency

Saddam al-Hassan  

It continues to be affected by the swing of foreign exchange rates, in addition to the sharp decline in the Syrian pound (lira) against the U.S. dollar, in affecting the movement of shopping and purchasing power, within the markets of north-eastern Syria. Manbij, The city that lies in the west of the Euphrates also suffers from the same effects, which have resulted in high costs of living, reflecting on the humanitarian situation of the low and middle income people.

North-Press surveyed the views of a number of local residents of the city of Manbij, and to shed a light on the living reality that is burdening the citizens. Mohammad al-Hussein, a resident of Manbij said that people are suffering from the "high prices", attributing the reason to closing most of the crossings, imposed taxes on goods and lack of materials in the area, which leads everyone to suffer, whether rich, poor or middle income. Al-Hussein called on the competent authorities to develop solutions to this problem, to reduce this costs and help the population to secure their living away from this swing of the exchange rates.

While As'ad al-Hamid, one of the IDPs living in Manbij, said: "The reason of the high costs is the monopoly of the traders.” He added that, "Most traders have lots of goods stored in warehouses in the countryside, buying anything by the dollar with a new price each day,” demanding, "to put an end to this monopoly and to pursue the monopolists, because the citizen can barely provide his daily living,” as he said.

For his turn, Hussein al-Farouq, a resident of Manbij stressed that, "this is a high cost that has never happened in the city's history!”

"Prices are rising as the dollar rises, and a low-income citizen can no longer live under these conditions,” he added.  

Between the high prices and the calls to control them, the citizen is still suffering from this swing, which turns him every time to become a victim of a foreign exchange rates.