War and sanctions have devastated Syria’s economy. According to the World Bank, the country’s GDP fell from $61.39 billion in 2010 to just $23.6 billion in 2022. Meanwhile, unemployment rose from 8.6 percent to 13.3 percent and inflation skyrocketed from 4.4 percent in 2010 to 47.7 percent in 2016, before coming down to a still-high 13.4 percent in 2019. International trade also came to a halt in multiple sectors, with data from the OEC showing how the country’s total export value dropped from $12.1 billion in 2010 to just $1.3 billion in 2023.
Heavy sanctions from countries around the world including the European Union and United States saw Syria’s landscape of trade partners completely change between the start of the war and towards its end. As the below chart shows, in 2010, Germany and Italy were among the top five destinations for exports from Syria, with France, the United States and the Netherlands in ranks 6, 8 and 9, respectively. At that time, the vast majority of Syrian exports to each of the aforementioned countries was petroleum. The U.S. imported $415 million of refined Syrian petroleum in 2010.
By 2023, the picture had changed, with Turkey accounting for the biggest share of any export destination country (28.7 percent), followed by Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, India and the UAE. In 2023, OEC data shows that the U.S. and several European countries were still buying some goods from Syria ($11.3 million worth to the U.S.), mainly in the areas of spice seeds, building stone, antiques, pickled foods and coffee.
Prior to the civil war, Syria’s biggest export product had been petroleum, both crude and refined. Together, these accounted for more than $5.3 billion in exports. However, sanctions on the purchase of Syrian oil meant it could not longer be bought internationally legally. Now, pure olive oil is Syria’s biggest export, followed by calcium phosphate, spice seeds and raw cotton.
Last month, the EU announced the suspension of wide-ranging sanctions against Syria, including on the energy sector to aid the country's economic recovery and hopes for reconstruction. The bloc has said it is monitoring the country’s situation to ensure that the suspensions remain appropriate. While the U.S. eased some sanctions on January 6, stringent sanctions remain, blocking whole sectors of Syria's economy and preventing new investment.
